Ethereum Shines as Gold Dims

Change in Fortunes

What a difference a few months can make.

In 2025, gold made a historic comeback. It posted continuous gains throughout the year and surpassed $4 000/oz for the first time in October. The long-time “safe-haven” asset flew on the back of trade uncertainty, demand for the US dollar dropping, and a central bank buying spree.

Some analysts even suggested that prices could reach as much as $5 000/oz by the end of 2026. As it turned out, they didn’t even have to wait that long. Spot gold reached an all-time high of over $5 500 in early 2026.

However, it was not to last. While the gold price was still above the $4 000 mark in March 2026, the metal suffered its sharpest weekly loss in 40 years. Israeli and US airstrikes on Iran had taken away a lot of the shine. In addition, there were rapid outflows from gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and many commodities trading advisor desks (CTAs) liquidated their stake in gold to hold cash as the dollar strengthened.

As gold moved south, cryptocurrencies held steady – a surprising outcome given that some critics were reading digital assets the last rites in December 2025.

Whale Turns Back On XAUt

While many comparisons were drawn between gold’s ascent and Bitcoin’s descent at the end of 2025, Ethereum, the world’s second-largest crypto platform by market cap, was barely mentioned.

That changed somewhat amid the gold-crypto fortune swop. Despite the conflict in the Middle East, the Ethereum to USD price enjoyed a string of positive results.

Notably, a crypto whale rotated capital from tokenised gold into Ethereum. The trade involved XAUt, Tether’s digital token that represents ownership of physical gold stored in Switzerland. It is often used by traders who want exposure to the metal via crypto markets.

The whale deposited 4,480 XAUT, estimated to be worth $22.7m, into an exchange and withdrew 10 242 ETH, worth about $21.9m.

For many, this was a major sign that sentiment among big investors was moving back towards crypto and away from gold.

Market’s Shifting Shape

Aside from perennial Ethereum backer and Bitwise chair Tom Lee buying yet more ETH, bringing the company’s total token holdings to 4.66 million with a value of $10.1 billion, another big name is making moves on the platform.

Erik Voorhees, founder of non-custodial crypto platform ShapeShift, recently acquired over $4.4 million worth of ETH.

Analysts quickly picked up on the fact that Voorhees’ purchase coincided with Ethereum’s price consolidation. Voorhees is renowned as a market player who seldom thinks in terms of short-term gains. When he buys, it is usually because he is confident about a platform’s long-term prospects.

Golden Egg Moment?

Lee and Voorhees’ buys are certainly not insignificant.

Ethereum, as the world’s leading altcoin, has long been touted as a platform that has the potential to rival Bitcoin in the not-too-distant future.

The stars do seem to be aligning for it in 2026. Whether it can become the goose that laid the golden egg remains to be seen, but for the moment it does seem to be outshining the precious metal as a more trusted asset.