Week of 7 July 2025: Bitcoin reaches a 52-week high while Ether gains 15.63%
When both assets rise in the same week but Ether gains 6.58 percentage points more, what does the gap say about relative demand, and what can the price data not explain?
BTC rose from 109,203.85 to 119,086.64 (+9.05%) and ETH from 2,570.35 to 2,972.03 (+15.63%). BTC's close sat at its 52-week high, with both assets in the upper third of their weekly ranges. Both logged their best day and their largest hourly move on Thursday 10 July.
What the data shows. Both assets set their lows before their highs and finished near the top of their ranges. BTC's low, 107,429.57, came at 02:00 UTC on Tuesday 8 July; its high, 119,488.00, arrived at 19:00 UTC on Sunday 13 July, and the close sat in the upper third of the range (close location 96.7%). ETH's low, 2,512.00, came at 16:00 UTC on Monday 7 July and its high, 3,040.15, at 09:00 UTC on Friday 11 July. Thursday 10 July was the best day for both (BTC +4.29%, ETH +6.59%) and produced both largest hourly moves in the hour starting 21:00 UTC (+2.64% BTC, +5.45% ETH). The two moved closely (hourly correlation 0.86, meaning the two prices tracked each other hour by hour) but ETH led, lifting the ETH/BTC ratio 6.03%. The weekly returns ranked at the 85th percentile for BTC and the 92nd for ETH against 386 prior weeks.
What it does not show. Volume offers little confirmation of broad demand: BTC dollar volume of 11.92 billion was 0.96 times its prior twelve-week average, ETH's 11.12 billion was 1.16 times. The data cannot say who was buying, why ETH led, or whether either high will hold. BTC's close sat at its 52-week high; ETH's close remained 27.27% below its own.
What a careful desk would check. Realised volatility, the size of the swings that actually happened scaled to a yearly figure, was 33.9% for BTC and 61.6% for ETH, close to double. ETH's weekly range was 21.03% against BTC's 11.22%, so sizing set on BTC alone would be too large for ETH. The four prior weeks were mixed for BTC (-0.13%, -4.38%, 7.32%, 0.78%), so this gain followed chop rather than a clear trend.
Funding. BTC funding, the periodic payment between long and short holders of perpetual futures, averaged 0.0067% per eight hours (high 0.01%, low 0.0011%); ETH averaged 0.0064% (high 0.01%, low -0.003%). Positive means longs paid shorts. The averages are small beside a 9.05% and 15.63% weekly gain, so leverage added little cost to the move.
What would change this reading
- If a later week closes below BTC's weekly open of 109,203.85, this week's new high reads as a turning point rather than a continuation.
- If the ETH/BTC ratio surrenders the 6.03% gained here, the outperformance was a one-week divergence rather than a trend.
- If ETH's realised volatility stays near 61.6% while BTC's stays near 33.9%, exposure sized on BTC alone remains too large for ETH.
- If funding rises well above 0.01% per eight hours while price stops advancing, longs are paying more for a market that is no longer rising.
Terms
- hourly correlation
- how closely two prices moved together hour by hour, from -1 to 1
- realised volatility
- how much the price actually swung over a period, expressed as a yearly percentage
- perpetual funding
- a regular payment between long and short holders of a perpetual futures contract; positive means longs pay shorts