Week of 19 February 2024: Ether gains 8.03% while Bitcoin ends the week 0.78% lower
When one large asset stalls and the other rises in the same week, what does the price and funding data establish about the size of the split, and what does it leave unexplained?
BTC fell from 52,137.68 to 51,728.85 (-0.78%) while ETH rose from 2,881.20 to 3,112.59 (+8.03%). The ETH/BTC ratio gained 8.88%. ETH closed at 96.4% of its weekly range and at its 52-week high; BTC closed mid-range, 2.1% below its own. ETH volume ran 1.56 times its prior twelve-week average, BTC's 0.93 times.
What the data shows. BTC traded inside a narrow band: a high of 52,985.00 on Tuesday 20 February at 13:00 UTC, a low of 50,521.00 on Friday 23 February at 23:00 UTC, and a close of 51,728.85, a range of 4.88%. ETH trended upward over the week, though Friday 23 February still fell 1.65%, its worst day. Its low of 2,856.93 was set at 01:00 UTC on Monday 19 February, its first hour of the week. Its high of 3,122.00 came later, at 20:00 UTC on Sunday 25 February, and it closed at 3,112.59, up 8.03% on a 9.28% range. The two assets still moved together hour by hour (correlation 0.89), but ETH climbed further, lifting the ETH/BTC ratio 8.88%. Volume separated too: ETH dollar volume of 9.84 billion was 1.56 times its prior twelve-week average, while BTC's 11.52 billion was 0.93 times its own prior twelve-week average, below its norm.
What it does not show. The data records the size of the split, not its cause. Nothing here identifies who was buying ETH or whether the buying was one account or many. Correlation of 0.89 is high, so most hourly movement was shared; the remaining share is unexplained by this dataset, and there is no open-interest or order-book information to break it down. ETH's weekly return ranks at the 77th percentile of the 314 weeks recorded, BTC's at the 38th.
What a careful desk would check. ETH's close sat at 96.4% of its weekly range, at the top, and at a 52-week high; BTC's close sat at 49.0%, mid-range. That contrast tends to persist or reverse on its own schedule, and one week cannot say which. A desk would also compare the split with the prior four weeks, where BTC returned 1.08%, 1.31%, 13.43% and 7.95% and ETH -8.15%, 1.46%, 9.5% and 14.92%, so leadership had already alternated.
Funding. Both markets carried positive perpetual funding all week: BTC averaged 0.0128% per eight hours (high 0.0231%, low 0.01%), ETH 0.0134% (high 0.0265%, low 0.01%). Longs were paying shorts on both, at similar rates, so funding recorded no crowding on one side that the price split alone would suggest.
What would change this reading
- If ETH holds above this week's close of 3,112.59 while BTC stays below 51,728.85, the split reads as a change in relative leadership rather than a single-week swing.
- If a later week shows the ETH/BTC ratio giving back part of the 8.88% gain, this week's divergence was a short-term rotation.
- If BTC volume returns above the 0.93 times baseline while price holds mid-range, the quiet week reads as reduced interest rather than distribution.
- If funding for ETH rises well past its 0.0265% eight-hour high, the cost of holding the long side of the outperformer becomes a live risk.
Terms
- ETH/BTC ratio
- the price of one Ether expressed in Bitcoin; it rises when Ether outperforms Bitcoin
- close location
- where the week's close sits between the week's low and high, measured as a share of that range
- percentile
- the share of past weeks with a lower value; the 77th percentile means 77% of the 314 weeks were lower