Written by: Blockchain Knight

As geopolitical tensions continue to ferment and global markets come under pressure, the cryptocurrency market has shown a differentiated trend, with Ethereum significantly outperforming Bitcoin, breaking the previous norm of BTC being the sole safe haven under geopolitical risks.

Data shows that since early March, Ethereum has risen 18% against the US dollar, while Bitcoin has only increased by 13% during the same period; the ETH/BTC exchange rate surged 7.6% in three weeks, from 0.0293 to 0.0315, potentially marking the first monthly gain since August 2025.

This round of increase coincides with macro pressure from soaring crude oil prices and tightening inflation expectations, with Ethereum rising against the trend, primarily driven by the return of institutional funds, recovery in speculative demand, and triple support from the network's fundamentals.

The massive entry of Wall Street funds is the core driving force behind ETH's strength. After a period of weak sentiment, institutional funds accelerated their return to Ethereum, with 9 spot ETH ETFs seeing net inflows exceeding $160 million in a single week, reaching a new high since mid-January, and on March 16, attracting another $35.9 million in a single day.

The ETH staking ETF launched by BlackRock has further ignited the market, starting with $104.7 million in seed funding and gaining an additional $45.7 million inflow within two days of its listing, allowing traditional investors to profit from price differences while also earning staking yields, aligning with institutional asset allocation needs.

Additionally, BitMine is accelerating its accumulation of ETH, purchasing over 100,000 coins in the first two weeks of this month, bringing its total holdings close to 4.6 million coins, and currently plans to acquire 5% of the total ETH supply, replicating the strategy used by public companies to hoard BTC.

Previously, a market flash crash led to nearly $19 billion in leveraged liquidations, causing ETH leverage to plummet by 27%, but recently leverage rates have gradually recovered, with risk appetite indices bouncing back from their lows, allowing speculative funds to enter cautiously.

At the same time, ETH inflows to exchanges have dropped to a new low since May 2025, with a large number of tokens transferred to private wallets and staking contracts, reducing the supply of circulating spot assets and significantly decreasing selling pressure, making price increases easier.

In the first quarter, Ethereum's network activity soared, processing over 150 million transactions and having 27.7 million active addresses, with gas consumption reaching an all-time high; the RWA settlement scale reached $200 billion, accounting for 61% of the market share, becoming the core platform for institutions to bring assets on-chain.

On the monetary policy front, after Ethereum transitioned to the PoS mechanism, its annualized inflation rate is only 0.24%, far lower than Bitcoin's 1.28% post-halving rate, showcasing a more pronounced deflationary attribute.

The combination of high activity, low inflation, and support from institutional funds has allowed ETH to break away from merely following BTC's trends and develop an independent market.

This indicates that the cryptocurrency market no longer recognizes Bitcoin as the only asset with allocation value; Ethereum's attributes as a financial asset are widely acknowledged by Wall Street.