Ethereum Outpaced Bitcoin in July — ETFs & Corporate Buyers Fueled the Move

Ethereum’s July Upswing: ETFs and Corporate Buyers Took the Spotlight

In July, Ethereum staged a noticeable comeback while Bitcoin moseyed along. ETH jumped roughly 19% during the month, peaking near $1,970 before easing back toward about $1,868. Bitcoin climbed too — about 8% — but kept getting stuck under the $65,000 ceiling.

The ETH/BTC pair also had its moment, briefly nudging above 0.030 before settling a touch lower around 0.0296. That’s a tidy one-month gain of over 10% for ETH relative to BTC, and it made plenty of traders sit up and say, “huh, maybe capital’s shifting back to Ethereum.”

What powered the move? Two big things: investment products and corporate accumulation. U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs pulled in roughly $365 million in net inflows in July — their best month this year — while Bitcoin ETFs drew around $172 million over the same stretch. New institutional products helped too: a recently launched Morgan Stanley Ethereum trust (ticker: MSSE) grabbed about $20 million right out of the gate, and the bank’s distribution reach could funnel more hands-off investors into the space.

On the corporate side, big holders of Ether kept buying albeit at a slower clip. One large corporate wallet climbed from roughly 5.70 million ETH at the end of June to about 5.79 million ETH later in July. Meanwhile, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder didn’t add to its stash that month, choosing instead to shore up cash and other priorities.

Why On-Chain Data Says “Not Out of the Woods” Yet

All that money coming in made headlines and propped up price action, but the deeper blockchain signals that tend to mark real, durable reversals haven’t fully lined up. The ETH/BTC ratio is still down substantially year-to-date and remains far below its multi-year peaks — which tells you that this rally so far looks like a bounce, not necessarily a full regime change.

Valuation-style on-chain metrics also suggest partial repair rather than a full reset. The market-value-to-realized-value (MVRV) style indicator for Ethereum has slid from higher readings to roughly 0.65, moving away from the extreme overvaluation that preceded last year’s pullback — but it hasn’t compressed into the low territory that historically marked previous cycle bottoms.

Exchange flow data paints a similar picture. The ratio of ETH-to-BTC deposits on trading platforms has dropped a lot from earlier highs (above 1.5) down to about 0.8, signaling that the fiercest selling pressure has faded. But earlier, decisive bottoms came when that ratio fell further, toward the 0.4 area. In short: selling has eased, but it hasn’t evaporated.

So what would make this feel like a true reversal instead of a tasteful recovery? For ETH to convincingly flip the script vs. BTC, the ETH/BTC pair would ideally hold steady above 0.030 while the valuation and exchange-flow measures keep moving in the direction where past bottoms formed. Until that happens, the safest read is that July delivered welcome momentum — not a fully confirmed cyclical floor.

Bottom line: Ethereum’s July was impressive and people are back on the dance floor, but the band hasn’t finished the song. Expect more twists before anyone crowns a new leader.