Ether (ETH) is ahead of Bitcoin in a clear rotation, with capital moving as Bitcoin ETFs see outflows and Ether funds and prices increase.
ETH is up about 8% over the past 24 hours, compared to a gain of around 5% for Bitcoin, according to market data from CoinDesk, extending its outperformance to around 4 percentage points over the past week and nearly 9 points over the past month.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw $325.8 million in net outflows on April 13, led by $229 million from Fidelity’s FBTC and $63 million from ARK’s ARKB, according to SoSoValue data. This decline marks a clear cooling of what has been the main source of marginal demand for Bitcoin.
Ether ETFs saw modest daily inflows of $7.7 million, while weekly inflows soared to $187 million for the period ending April 10 – the best performance of 2026 and a sharp reversal from three straight weeks of outflows totaling around $308 million. Cumulative inflows have now reached a record high of $11.68 billion.
At the same time, activity on the Ethereum network is accelerating sharply. Daily transactions jumped 41% week-over-week to around 3.6 million, with Artemis data showing a near-vertical increase from around 2.5 million on April 10. Among the big chains, only Sonic and TON saw larger percentage gains, both on much smaller bases.
The quality of this activity is, however, less obvious. Stablecoin transfer volume on Ethereum is down 42.6% over the same period and fees have dropped almost 50%, indicating smaller transaction size and lighter economic throughput.
Bitcoin, for its part, is holding strong despite outflows, a sign of underlying spot support even as its dominant ETF offering weakens, according to Glassnode’s latest weekly report.
For now, bitcoin is absorbing ETF outflows without breaking, a sign of underlying strength in the spot, even as momentum indicators point to overbought. Whether Ether’s pattern marks the start of a sustained rotation or a short-lived burst will depend on whether ETH funds maintain inflows and Bitcoin’s positioning proceeds without a sharp correction.
It also depends on the quality of the on-chain activity. The stablecoin summer of 2025, when USDC and USDT transfer volumes surged and drove Ethereum to record economic throughput, set the benchmark for a fundamentally driven rally that helped push ether toward $4,000.
This week’s data points in the opposite direction. Transactions are up 41%, but stablecoin volume is down 42.6%, signaling increased activity with less value. Closing that gap is what would turn a rotation into something more sustainable.
