JPMorgan moves onto Ethereum while the funds sell

The Liquidity Map · Crypto report

JPMorgan moves onto Ethereum while the funds sell

Against Bitcoin, Ethereum has bottomed twice at the same level, in 2019 and in 2025.

This week, a major bank moved onto Ethereum while the funds sold.

October 26th, 2026 · 5 min read

Key takeaways

In April 2025, Ethereum's market cap? relative to Bitcoin's fell back to its 2019 low.
In the short term, funds are selling Ethereum. In the long term, banks are building on it.
Bitcoin's October 2025 top came 114 days before the S&P 500?'s.

Most people who lost money in crypto lost it on altcoins?, not on Bitcoin. I'm one of them.

I keep a list of dead altcoins I don't show anyone. Not even myself. That's why, after 2021, I kept most of my money in Bitcoin and didn't touch Ethereum for four years.

This year I changed that, and today's chart shows why.

Definition

ETH/BTC by market cap

The value of all Ethereum coins divided by the value of all Bitcoin. When it rises, Ethereum is gaining more than Bitcoin.

Ethereum

Two lows at the same level, more than five years apart

In September 2019, Ethereum was worth a tenth of Bitcoin. By December 2021 it had reached 55% of Bitcoin, and the decline started from there.

I expected it to fall at least to 0.17-0.18, but it went lower, to 0.11 in April 2025, practically the 2019 low.

At that level, the risk-to-reward was better on Ethereum than on Bitcoin.

Since March 2026 I've been buying Ethereum, for the first time in four years.

The ratio is now at 0.18, 63% above the April 2025 low. If it returns to 0.55, as in 2021, Ethereum would gain three times as much as Bitcoin.

That's the math of the chart, not a promise. I leave promises to the guys with a rented Lamborghini in the thumbnail.

0.18Ethereum's market cap divided by Bitcoin's, on October 24th. The lows: 0.10 in 2019 and 0.11 in 2025.

Ethereum versus Bitcoin, the ratio of their market caps from 2017 to today.

This week, the news pulled in two directions.

This week

Banks are building on Ethereum while funds are selling

On October 19th, JPMorgan brought its digital coin, JPM Coin, to the Ethereum mainnet. Each unit is one dollar held on deposit at the bank, and it's only available to institutional clients.

At the same time, nearly $1.1 billion left the Ethereum ETFs? in October. It shows in the price too: since September 29th, Ethereum is down 11.6% and Bitcoin 3.5%.

The funds are selling this month. The banks are building their system for the next ten years.

Meanwhile, staked Ethereum hit a record 43.8 million coins at the end of September. Among those keeping their coins staked is Bitmine, Tom Lee's company.

Tokenization needs a network banks trust to move dollars on, and one of their picks right now is Ethereum. In 2017, JPMorgan's CEO called Bitcoin a fraud. Now his bank's coin lives on Ethereum.

I'm not judging. Okay, a little.

35.9%The share of all Ethereum staked at the end of September, a record.

The ETH/BTC ratio in 2026. Red area: the period of outflows from the Ethereum ETFs.

That leaves the question I get most often.

Bitcoin

When is the bull market back?

I answered on X with a chart. From the November 2022 low of $15,599, Bitcoin rose 373% by March 2024.

Only after that did almost everyone start calling it a bull market?. Until then, most people said we were still in a bear market?.

The market doesn't send invitations. And if it did, they'd land in spam.

What matters is being positioned before everyone agrees.

Bitcoin is now at $80,667, between the 2021 high of $68,790 and the 2025 high of $126,198. For many, this is the zone where it's still not a bull market.

Whatever name the internet gives it doesn't change the chart.

+373%Bitcoin, from the November 2022 low to the March 2024 high.

Bitcoin, weekly closes, with the 2021 and 2025 highs.

There's one more reason I watch stocks too.

Stocks

Crypto moves first, and stocks follow

Bitcoin topped on October 6th, 2025, at $126,198. The S&P 500 kept rising for almost four more months, until January 28th, 2026, when Bitcoin was already 29% lower.

Only then did stocks correct as well, by 9.8%, until March 30th. It was the same in 2025: Bitcoin topped on January 20th and the S&P on February 19th.

Crypto moves first.

Stocks are the friend who shows up to the party while the chairs are being stacked. I'd watch stocks even if almost all of my portfolio were in crypto, because that's where the money comes from.

Thursday's stock market report covered what the S&P did after every US midterm election.

114 daysHow long the S&P 500 kept rising after Bitcoin topped on October 6th, 2025.

Bitcoin and the S&P 500, rebased to 100 on September 1st, 2025.

That's where the positioning starts.

How we're positioned

Bitcoin and Ethereum are now almost equal in my crypto portfolio, and together they make up 70% of it. The other 30% is in DeFi, ISO coins, a few meme coins and NFTs, and for altcoins I'm following last week's chart.

I'm buying the dips until April 2027, and for Ethereum, the level I'm watching from 2027 on is above $11,000.

As I wrote on Thursday, now is the time to be positioned, not when Bitcoin makes the new high I expect by July 2027.

Conclusions

This month, the funds sold Ethereum, and one of the biggest banks in the world moved its digital money onto it.

I'm watching the multi-year chart, not one month of flows. On that chart, Ethereum bottomed where it bottomed in 2019.

If you made it this far, you've read more than the funds that sold this month.

What to watch this week

Does ETH/BTC stay above its 2026 low of 0.156?
Do the outflows from the Ethereum ETFs stop?

JPMorgan moves onto Ethereum while the funds sell

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