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Bitcoin, Solana Hit New Cycle Highs Against Ether as Trump Edges Closer to U.S. Presidency

Bitcoin dominance approached 61% with Solana dominance also primed to touch record high.

Updated Nov 6, 2024, 11:15 a.m. Published Nov 6, 2024, 10:25 a.m.
BTC-ETH Market Spread (TradingView)
BTC-ETH Market Spread (TradingView)
  • Bitcoin broke all-time highs on Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election.
  • Solana continues to outperform ether, making a new cycle high.
  • The total cryptocurrency market cap hit $2.45 trillion, the most since June.

Bitcoin surged to an all-time high above $75,000 as Republican Donald Trump looked set to clinch the U.S. presidency. It was recently trading around $74,000 on major crypto exchanges.

The election result was the news bitcoin needed to break through March's record, and the U.S. market's opening could propel the largest token by market cap to even greater heights.

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Crypto was one of the biggest winning industries on the Trump triumph, with total market capitalization hitting $2.45 trillion, the highest since June, according to theTradingView metric TOTAL.

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ETH/BTC ratio slumps

The widely watched ratio tracking the relative price strength of ether against bitcoin dropped to its lowest level since April 2021, suggesting a fallout in investor demand for the world’s second-largest token.

The ether-bitcoin trading pair fell under 0.035 early Wednesday, extending year-to-datelosses to more than 34%. Although colloquially called a ratio, ETH/BTC is simply the trading pair of ether against bitcoin on crypto exchanges, which attracts hundreds of millions in daily volumes.

An increase indicates that ether is outperforming bitcoin and vice versa. When the price rises, traders consider a preference for ETH beneficial for riskier assets and Ethereum ecosystem bets. A slide indicates a preference for Bitcoin and blockchains other than Ethereum.

Over the past five years, the ratio has risen from 0.02 to a peak of above 0.08 in early 2022, meaning ETH quadrupled in value relative to BTC at the time. Since then, it's been on decline. Even as BTC set a lifetime high, ether has yet to break through its high from 2021 and is down 46% from its peak.

Year-to-date, bitcoin has returned over 75% to investors, while ether holders have gained just over 14%, according to MarketWatch data.

In addition, bitcoin's market cap approached $1.5 trillion at the high and continues to widen and outperform ether. The spread between bitcoin and ether's market cap hit a new high of $1.16 trillion, which coincided with the ETH/BTC ratio continuing to make new lows.

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Solana's another big winner

Solana also flexed its muscles against ether. The token is up 10% in the past 24 hours, and also made new cycle highs against ether at 0.072. The Solana market cap dominance approached 3.70%, though it has yet to break into new all-time highs.

SOL/ETH (TradingView)
SOL/ETH (TradingView)

Profit-taking continues

Bitcoin has been climbing higher throughout September, October and into November. CoinDesk research has observed a lot ofprofit-taking over the past month. As bitcoin made new all-time highs, CoinDesk observed a notable amount of profit-taking, $1.5 billion worth, which coincided with bitcoin's slight pullback from all-time highs.

BTC: Realized Profit (Glassnode)
BTC: Realized Profit (Glassnode)

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Exchange Review - March 2025

Exchange Review March 2025

CoinDesk Data's monthly Exchange Review captures the key developments within the cryptocurrency exchange market. The report includes analyses that relate to exchange volumes, crypto derivatives trading, market segmentation by fees, fiat trading, and more.

What to know:

Trading activity softened in March as market uncertainty grew amid escalating tariff tensions between the U.S. and global trading partners. Centralized exchanges recorded their lowest combined trading volume since October, declining 6.24% to $6.79tn. This marked the third consecutive monthly decline across both market segments, with spot trading volume falling 14.1% to $1.98tn and derivatives trading slipping 2.56% to $4.81tn.

  • Trading Volumes Decline for Third Consecutive Month: Combined spot and derivatives trading volume on centralized exchanges fell by 6.24% to $6.79tn in March 2025, reaching the lowest level since October. Both spot and derivatives markets recorded their third consecutive monthly decline, falling 14.1% and 2.56% to $1.98tn and $4.81tn respectively.
  • Institutional Crypto Trading Volume on CME Falls 23.5%: In March, total derivatives trading volume on the CME exchange fell by 23.5% to $175bn, the lowest monthly volume since October 2024. CME's market share among derivatives exchanges dropped from 4.63% to 3.64%, suggesting declining institutional interest amid current macroeconomic conditions. 
  • Bybit Spot Market Share Slides in March: Spot trading volume on Bybit fell by 52.1% to $81.1bn in March, coinciding with decreased trading activity following the hack of the exchange's cold wallets in February. Bybit's spot market share dropped from 7.35% to 4.10%, its lowest since July 2023.

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What to know:

  • Ethena's USDe becomes fifth stablecoin to surpass $10 billion market cap in just 609 days, while Tether's dominance continues to slip.