Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH): a comparison
Bitcoin and Ethereum set side by side: how the quotes moved, how the protocols are built and what tasks each one was made for.
Specifications of BTC and ETH
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Ethereum (ETH) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $74,836.00 | $2,118.59 |
| Ticker | BTC | ETH |
| Type | coin of its own network | coin of its own network |
| Launched | 2009 | 2015 |
| Built by | Satoshi Nakamoto | Vitalik Buterin |
| Consensus | Proof of Work (SHA-256) | Proof of Stake |
| Block | ~10 min | ~12 sec |
| Supply cap | 21 M BTC | no cap |
| Privacy | transfers are public | transfers are public |
| In circulation | 20.11 M BTC | 122.21 M ETH |
| Market cap | $1.5 T | $258.91 B |
| Rank by cap | #1 | #2 |
Source: CoinGecko, Nov 10, 2026 12:57. How these numbers are counted
Price movement: BTC and ETH
The start of the period is taken as 100 for both prices: the chart shows the difference in movement, not the quotes themselves.
| Period | BTC | ETH |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days | −3.94% | −5.29% |
| 30 days | −8.91% | −14.9% |
| 90 days | +17.66% | +13.34% |
The link between their daily moves over the quarter is 0.91 (they travel together).
The tasks BTC and ETH were made for
- Storing value over the long runBitcoin
- Contracts and applicationsEthereum
How Bitcoin and Ethereum are built
How Bitcoin works
Underneath it is Proof of Work on SHA-256. Miners compete for the right to close the next block, which happens roughly every 10 minutes, and the reward is made up of new coins plus transaction fees. Every 210,000 blocks, about once every four years, the reward is cut in half, so issuance gradually fades out. Balances are not held in accounts but as unspent outputs (UTXO).
What Bitcoin is for
Most people buy bitcoin for the long run and hold it, treating it as a way to preserve capital. At the same time it stays the reference point for the whole market: trading pairs, indices and derivatives are quoted against it. Less often, it is used for what it was built for — cross-border transfers — while small payments are moved to the Lightning Network.
How Ethereum works
In the autumn of 2022 the network moved from mining to Proof of Stake: blocks are proposed and confirmed by validators who have locked up ETH, and a new slot opens every 12 seconds. Contract code is executed by the EVM virtual machine. Part of the fee on every transaction is destroyed, so the final supply of the coin depends on how actively the network is used.
What Ethereum is for
ETH is needed to pay for gas, is posted as collateral in DeFi, takes part in staking and serves as the unit of account of the ecosystem. Layer-2 networks — Arbitrum, Optimism and others — also charge their fees in ETH, so the coin serves a sizeable part of the crypto market.