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The Ethereum uptrend continues when writing on April 18, four days after the smart contracting platform activated the much-anticipated Shanghai Upgrade. As Ethereum bulls double down, the coin has outperformed Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap. ETH is up roughly 15% in the last week of trading versus Bitcoin.
Ethereum Outperforming Bitcoin
ETH is trading at 0.0708BTC and at a new April 2023 high. Moreover, it is within a bullish breakout formation versus Bitcoin. A notable development in the past few days is the solid break above recent resistance, now support, at around 0.0677BTC on April 14.
While the recovery of prices has been impressive, ETH bulls have yet to reverse losses posted against Bitcoin from early March completely. Moreover, for the better part of Q1 2023, Bitcoin bulls had the upper hand against Ethereum. To illustrate, Bitcoin added approximately 20% against Ethereum, with noticeable gains visible in mid-March 2023.
In mid-March 2023, there were fears of a banking crisis in the United States. Three banks had collapsed quickly with the bank run of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a regional bank, sparking fears.
The de-pegging of USDC, a stablecoin, also saw users move their assets to, among other coins, Bitcoin. Furthermore, news that Binance will also purchase BNB, Ethereum, and Bitcoin provided much-needed momentum.
Will Bulls Sustain The Uptrend After Shanghai?
However, after weeks of underperforming Bitcoin, the tide is beginning to shift in favor of Ethereum. Although recovery can be traced to April 10, the rapid expansion of ETH prices versus Bitcoin is marked on April 14. On this day, the Shanghai Upgrade went live, allowing validators and stakers to withdraw their coins from the Beacon Chain, boosting ETH liquidity.
Before the upgrade, on-chain data revealed over $32 billion worth of ETH was locked up in the official deposit address. Interestingly, while some validators and stakers have since withdrawn their coins, the dollar value of assets tied in the Beacon Chain exceeds $39 billion. The expansion could be partly due to the appreciation of ETH prices over the past few trading days, pushing the coin above the $2,000 level.
Shanghai has completely turned Ethereum into a proof-of-stake platform, with coin holders able to withdraw their assets. Besides Shanghai, the simultaneous update through Capella introduced consensus changes, making the mainnet more secure, performant, and efficient.
Whether ETH will continue outperforming Bitcoin in the days ahead remains to be seen for now. However, it is vital for ETH bulls to firmly push above 0.072BTC, or February and March 2023 highs, in a breakout. This could be the base of another leg up towards Q1 2023 highs of 0.078 BTC.
