Santiment: Ethereum Hits $2,391 as ETH Gains on Bitcoin
Santiment-linked Ethereum data points to a two-part story: ETH later bounced as high as $2,391, while an earlier Santiment note said Ethereum price dominance against Bitcoin had risen 22.4% over the prior week, signaling that traders were rewarding ETH relative strength rather than just lifting the whole crypto market.
Comparing the Jan. 16, 2024 Santiment note with the later Santiment-linked market update cited by U.Today suggests the tip merged two separate updates rather than one single primary-source statement. The missing ending in the tip after “officially at its…” could not be confirmed from a primary source, so it should not be guessed.
The Santiment signal was about ETH/BTC strength, not a flip in market leadership
In a Jan. 16, 2024 Santiment note, Ethereum’s price dominance versus Bitcoin rose 22.4% over the previous week. The same Santiment update said the network was adding roughly 89.4K new ETH addresses per day, including 96.3K wallets created on that date.
Santiment also said ETH supply on exchanges was nearing its all-time low of 8.05%. That matters because lower exchange supply, if sustained, can support the ETH/BTC leadership case by implying less immediate sell pressure on coins already held off trading venues.
Current data shows Ethereum is firm, but Bitcoin still controls the broader market
CoinGecko’s public Ethereum market page places ETH at $2,373.18, up 8.44% over 24 hours, with a $286.37 billion market cap and roughly $27.20 billion in daily volume.
A later U.Today report citing Santiment said Ethereum was seeing about 484,000 unique interacting addresses per day and roughly 101,000 new ETH addresses daily. Those activity figures help explain why a Santiment-led ETH narrative kept attracting attention even after the initial January outperformance note.
CoinGecko’s public global market view still shows Bitcoin at 57.26% of total crypto market capitalization, versus Ethereum at 10.99%. That gap is why the headline’s “dominance against Bitcoin” phrasing is best read as ETH/BTC relative performance, not a claim that Ethereum has overtaken Bitcoin in absolute market-cap dominance.
Dencun timing, short liquidations, and post-ETF rotation all helped shape the move
The Ethereum Foundation said Dencun would go live on Goerli at 6:32 UTC on Jan. 17, 2024, and it highlighted EIP-4844 as a change expected to lower layer-2 transaction fees. That upgrade calendar gave traders a concrete catalyst for rotating toward Ethereum’s network story rather than treating the move as a pure beta trade.
Leverage data also reinforced the turn. Cointelegraph reported that $15.03 million in ETH shorts were liquidated on Jan. 16, compared with about $5.3 million in longs, as ETH reached $2,614. That imbalance suggests the ETH/BTC move was strong enough to force bearish positioning out of the market.
The broader market backdrop also mattered. The combination of ETH/BTC outperformance data and short-liquidation pressure showed leadership rotating toward ETH, even if that leadership later proved unstable in TrustsCrypto’s report on spot ETF demand clashing with miner sell pressure.
Lower-fee expectations around Dencun also fit a wider search for productive on-chain use cases. That same large-cap rotation has been visible in protocol governance stories such as Aave Labs securing a $25 million stablecoin grant as its DAO revenue model shifted, where investors were also rewarding activity and utility rather than just passive beta exposure.
What could weaken the Ethereum-over-Bitcoin setup from here
The bullish interpretation still has limits. The Fear & Greed Index sits at 21, or Extreme Fear, which means the broader market backdrop remains fragile even while ETH-specific activity and relative-strength data look better.
That is why the Santiment signal should be treated as a short-term leadership read, not proof of a lasting regime change. If the 22.4% ETH-versus-BTC outperformance, the 8.05% exchange-supply reading, and the address-growth data stop improving together, the ETH-over-BTC case weakens quickly.
FAQ: Santiment, Ethereum, and the ETH/BTC signal
What is Santiment? Santiment is a crypto market intelligence platform that publishes price, network, and social data, including the Jan. 16, 2024 Ethereum note that flagged ETH’s relative outperformance against Bitcoin.
What does Ethereum price dominance against Bitcoin mean? In this case it refers to relative performance in the ETH/BTC comparison, not to Ethereum overtaking Bitcoin’s broader market share, which still heavily favors BTC.
Does the move confirm a lasting Ethereum breakout? Not by itself. The stronger read comes from combining the current ETH price trend, the exchange-supply and address metrics, and the still-cautious sentiment backdrop.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets are volatile, and readers should do their own research before making decisions.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.
