Bitcoin (BTC) against Ethereum (ETH)
Bitcoin and Ethereum next to each other: how the prices travelled, what differs under the hood and what each coin is built for.
BTC and ETH: what is under the hood
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Ethereum (ETH) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $76,608.00 | $2,467.42 |
| Ticker | BTC | ETH |
| Type | coin of its own network | coin of its own network |
| Launched | 2009 | 2015 |
| Built by | Satoshi Nakamoto | Vitalik Buterin |
| Consensus | Proof of Work (SHA-256) | Proof of Stake |
| Block | ~10 min | ~12 sec |
| Supply cap | 21 M BTC | no cap |
| Privacy | transfers are public | transfers are public |
| In circulation | 20.09 M BTC | 122.06 M ETH |
| Market cap | $1.54 T | $301.08 B |
| Rank by cap | #1 | #2 |
Source: CoinGecko, Sep 17, 2026 18:54. Where these numbers come from
Who went where: BTC and ETH
Both prices start the period at 100, so the chart shows which one rose or fell harder — not the prices themselves.
| Period | BTC | ETH |
|---|---|---|
| Week | −2.72% | −0.37% |
| Month | +18.08% | +28.56% |
| Quarter | +21.07% | +43.76% |
Over the quarter their daily moves line up at 0.9 (they travel together).
What each one is built for: BTC and ETH
- Holding value long termBitcoin
- Smart contracts and appsEthereum
How Bitcoin and Ethereum are built
How Bitcoin works
The network uses Proof of Work with the SHA-256 algorithm: miners compete to add a new block roughly every 10 minutes and receive newly issued coins plus fees. Every 210,000 blocks (about four years) the block reward is cut in half, which slows issuance until the 21 million cap is reached. Balances are tracked as unspent transaction outputs (UTXO).
What Bitcoin is for
Bitcoin is mostly held as a long-term store of value and used as the base asset of the crypto market: most trading pairs, indices and derivatives are priced against it. It is also used for cross-border transfers and, through the Lightning Network, for small fast payments.
How Ethereum works
Since September 2022 Ethereum has used Proof of Stake: validators lock ETH to propose and confirm blocks, with a new slot every 12 seconds. Smart contracts run in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Part of every transaction fee is burned, so the net supply depends on network activity.
What Ethereum is for
ETH is used to pay gas fees, as collateral in DeFi, for staking and as a settlement asset across the ecosystem. Layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism also use ETH for fees, which makes it the working currency of a large part of the crypto economy.