Bitcoin Stalls Despite Bullish Hype—Ethereum Steals the Trader Spotlight
Another ’game-changing’ Bitcoin announcement, another meh reaction from the market. While BTC flatlines, traders pivot to Ethereum—because apparently even crypto needs a backup quarterback.
When the ’flippening’ narrative fades, the smart money just flips its bets instead. Classic Wall Street logic—just with more memecoins and less regulation.
Bitcoin rally cools, traders shift attention to alts
Bitcoin Conference 2025 in Las Vegas brought together BTC believers, holders, maximalists and some of the biggest names supporting BTC, including US Vice President JD Vance and former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes. Bitcoin traders were visibly unimpressed with the bullish statements and assurances, as headlines have been recycled several times since January 2025 with little action to show for it.
BTC trades at $107,100 at the time of writing. While BTC trades less than 5% away from its all-time high at $111,980, technical indicators on the daily timeframe flash mixed signals.
The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) flashes red histogram bars under the neutral line, implying an underlying bearish momentum in Bitcoin price trend. Relative Strength Index (RSI) reads 62 and is sloping upward, supporting a likelihood of gains in Bitcoin price.
A key support level is $102,314, the upper boundary of a Fair Value Gap (FVG) on the BTC/USDT daily price chart.
BTC/USDT daily price chart | Source: TradingView
Despite bullish headlines, there’s no significant rally in Bitcoin, while Ethereum, Ethereum-based tokens like staking and LAYER 2 tokens and AI tokens rallied in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.
Ethereum sees structural rotation, traders take bullish bets on ETH
Ethereum rallied to $2,788 on Thursday, marking its highest level since February 2025, before retreating to the $2,640 level at the time of writing. The ETH/BTC pair climbed 6% from its local lows with the rally and Jag Kooner, Head of Derivatives at Bitfinex, says that the gain in the pair was not retail-driven.
Kooner said:
“The SBET Ethereum Treasury announcement is a key catalyst. The ETH/BTC reversal signals a shift in dominance—early-stage moves that often precede broader altcoin outperformance.
The fact that this strength is happening alongside, not after, BTC price acceleration makes it especially bullish: capital isn’t exiting Bitcoin, it’s compounding across L1s. This is the beginning of what might become Phase 3 of the crypto bull cycle, where BTC strength stabilizes, ETH accelerates, and capital spreads out across selective altcoins.”
Derivatives data from Coinglass shows the long/short ratio on derivatives exchanges like Binance and OKX exceeds 1, meaning more traders are taking long positions than short. Derivatives traders are betting on an increase in the Ethereum price.
Ryan Lee, Chief Analyst at Bitget Research, told FXStreet:
“Whales have accumulated 1.4 million ETH since April, reducing exchange supply and applying upward pressure. Ethereum could target $3,000–$3,400 in the NEAR term after its break above $2,700. The momentum will depend on volume trends, macro conditions, and continued institutional support.”
