Bitcoin vs Ethereum – How April’s recovery exposes market divide between them

Bitcoin [$BTC] has been on a wild ride four months into 2026. After experiencing volatility in March, the leading cryptocurrency recovered in April. Even though the year got off to a great start, Bitcoin dropped to a low of $65K in March.

Only in April did Bitcoin manage to break $70,000, and by May, it had surpassed $80,000. On the contrary, Ethereum’s price dropped to $1,943 in March, but it recovered to $2,421 in April. At the time of writing, it was trading at $2,388.

Ethereum vs. Bitcoin

Although the price patterns appear to be fairly similar, recent analyses by CryptoQuant indicated that the supply-demand structure of Ethereum [$ETH] and Bitcoin has differed.

At the time of writing, the Coinbase Premium Index of Bitcoin indicated that institutions, rather than just retailers, were responsible for April’s rally.

Source: CryptoQuant

Similarly, Ethereum too flashed signs of strong backup from institutions, even though $BTC was given more preference in capital allocation.

Source: CryptoQuant

Simultaneously, Bitcoin’s Exchange Netflow chart demonstrated more outflow spikes – A sign of sustained accumulation and decreased sell-side supply.

Source: CryptoQuant

Remarking on the same, XWIN, a Japanese DeFi asset management platform, noted,

$BTC’s rally was supported by both strong demand and constrained supply.

For its part though, Ethereum has been more influenced by erratic exchange netflows, where short-term movements were determined by changes in supply. Instead of demand-driven growth, $ETH has so far seen a reactive, supply-driven structure.

Source: CryptoQuant

Again, XWIN, a Japanese DeFi asset management platform, noted,

If $ETH begins to show sustained spot demand similar to $BTC, broader altcoin participation may follow. Until then, Bitcoin dominance is likely to persist.

Will Q2 2026 see $BTC overtake Ethereum once again?

Here, it’s worth noting that this coincided with the $ETH/$BTC ratio of 0.02934 following a 4.37% decline over the previous month. This suggested that $ETH has become less strong in relation to $BTC.

Source: Trading View

Simply put, institutions and retailers are both prioritizing Bitcoin over Ethereum.

This difference between the two was also evident in 2025. While Ethereum concentrated on what the network could accomplish, Bitcoin concentrated on being stronger.

In fact, AMBCrypto’s latest report supported this narrative, with the same finding that Bitcoin is strong enough to beat Ethereum for the rest of Q2.

Final Summary

Ethereum and Bitcoin’s price movements have followed similar patterns, but on-chain metrics exhibited diverging patterns.

The $ETH/$BTC ratio also indicated that Bitcoin will beat Ethereum in Q2 2026.