Bitcoin vs Ethereum: A Year-by-Year History
This page tracks the calendar-year performance of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) in US dollars from their earliest trading days through the present. Bitcoin data begins in 2010, the year the first BTC/USD markets appeared on early exchanges. Ethereum data begins in August 2015, when ETH started trading shortly after the Frontier network launch. Every row in the tables above shows the annual open, high, low, close, and percentage gain — the canonical OHLC format used across financial markets.
How to read the yearly OHLC table
Each row represents a single calendar year. Open is the first daily opening price of that year in USD. Close is the last daily closing price. For assets launched mid-year (like Ethereum in August 2015), the open is the first available trading day. The high and low columns show the highest and lowest daily prices observed during the year. The gain column is the open-to-close return: (close − open) / open × 100. The current year updates as new daily data arrives.
Bitcoin's biggest years
Bitcoin's standout years are 2013 (+5,866%), the year BTC first broke $1,000 and became a household name; 2017 (+1,338%), the ICO mania year when BTC climbed from under $1,000 to nearly $20,000; 2020 (+303%), driven by institutional adoption and the MicroStrategy / Tesla treasury buys; and 2023 (+156%) and 2024 (+121%), powered by spot Bitcoin ETF anticipation and launch. Bitcoin's worst years were 2014 (−60%) after the Mt. Gox collapse, 2018 (−73%) as the ICO bubble deflated, and 2022 (−64%) amid rising interest rates and the Terra, Celsius, and FTX failures.
Ethereum's biggest years
Ethereum's best calendar years are 2017 (+9,145%)— Ethereum's all-time best year, driven by the ICO boom where thousands of tokens launched on the network; 2016 (+766%), the first full year of ETH trading; 2020 (+471%), the DeFi summer; and 2021 (+399%), the NFT year. Ethereum's worst years were 2018 (−82%) and 2022 (−67%), mirroring Bitcoin's drawdowns with higher beta.
Who won each year — BTC vs ETH head-to-head
Year-by-year, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin in most bull-market years (2016, 2017, 2020, 2021) while underperforming during the post-ETF era (2023, 2024). This pattern reflects ETH's higher beta — it tends to amplify BTC's moves in both directions. Bitcoin has been the more consistent performer on a multi-year basis, partly because of its longer track record and partly because of the institutional flows that concentrated in BTC after the January 2024 spot ETF approvals. You can visualize this relationship in real time on the live BTC vs ETH dashboard and track the ratio shift on the flippening tracker.
Historical eras at a glance
2010–2012 — The Genesis Era:Bitcoin trades on a handful of exchanges, mostly Mt. Gox. Prices climb from fractions of a cent to over $13. Ethereum doesn't exist yet.
2013–2014 — The First Boom and Bust: Bitcoin rockets from $13 to over $1,100 in 2013, then crashes 60% in 2014 as Mt. Gox implodes. This is the first full cycle retail crypto investors experience.
2015–2016 — Recovery and Ethereum Launch:Bitcoin recovers from $200 lows. Ethereum launches in August 2015 at under $1 and begins trading on major exchanges. The DAO hack in mid-2016 triggers Ethereum's controversial hard fork and the creation of Ethereum Classic.
2017 — The ICO Mania: The defining bull market year for both assets. BTC hits nearly $20,000. ETH goes from $8 to over $740 (+9,145%). Initial coin offerings drive ETH demand as thousands of new tokens launch on the network. Retail FOMO peaks in December.
2018–2019 — Crypto Winter: 2018 is brutal — BTC −73%, ETH −82%. 2019 brings a partial BTC recovery (+92%) but ETH stays flat (−3%). The SEC begins ICO enforcement actions.
2020–2021 — Institutional Adoption and DeFi: The COVID liquidity wave triggers the next bull market. BTC +303% in 2020. ETH +471% in 2020 as DeFi TVL explodes. 2021 brings NFT mania and further gains: BTC +59%, ETH +399%. Both assets reach new all-time highs in November 2021.
2022 — The Macro Crash: Rising interest rates, the Terra /Luna collapse, Celsius insolvency, and the November FTX implosion combine to produce the worst macro crypto year on record. BTC −64%, ETH −67%.
2023–2024 — The ETF Era: Spot Bitcoin ETFs are approved in January 2024 after a year of anticipation. BTC +156% in 2023, +121% in 2024. ETH lags at +91% and +46%, raising questions about whether BTC has permanently decoupled from ETH.
2025–2026 — Current Cycle: The market digests the spot ETF inflows, halving-cycle dynamics, and a new macro environment. Current year-to-date data updates in the tables above. For real-time prices and dominance, see the live dashboard and the interactive price history chart.
Data source and methodology
Yearly statistics are aggregated from daily OHLC data provided by CryptoCompare's histodayendpoint. Annual open is the first daily open of the year, close is the last daily close, and high and low are the yearly extremes of sanity-filtered daily values. A simple filter excludes daily high/low prints more than 2× the day's closing price, which removes isolated bad ticks from thin early exchange liquidity — most notably the Mt. Gox death-spiral prints in early 2014. For additional comparison metrics beyond price, see the full BTC vs ETH comparison covering technology, fees, and adoption. This is informational content and not investment advice — past performance does not predict future returns.