Analyst Fire Hustle argues that Ethereum's sharp move against Bitcoin — rather than Bitcoin's own rally — is the signal investors should be watching for a potential altcoin rotation. In a recent video, she points to Ethereum's largest single-day advance since May 2025, alongside roughly $3 billion in liquidations over 24 hours, predominantly from short positions.

Her central claim is deliberately narrower than an outright altseason call: ETH/BTC has broken its downtrend, but one strong session does not establish a durable cycle. "Altseason has never started because BTC pumped," she says, arguing that capital historically moves into Ether before reaching smaller-cap assets. The ETH/BTC ratio — Ether priced in Bitcoin rather than dollars — is among the most widely tracked relative-strength measures in crypto precisely because it strips out dollar-driven moves that lift both assets together.

Why Bitcoin Dominance May Give a Distorted Signal

Bitcoin dominance fell from about 65% in June of the prior year to 57%, yet the analyst says the broad rotation into altcoins that many expected never materialized.

The proposed explanation centers on stablecoins. With more than $300 billion in stablecoin supply, their inclusion in total crypto market capitalization can push Bitcoin dominance lower without indicating fresh demand for riskier tokens. Dominance is simply Bitcoin's market capitalization divided by total crypto market capitalization, and some analysts recalculate the metric with stablecoins excluded for exactly this reason.

Fire Hustle instead highlights the ETH/BTC ratio, which had been declining since May before recently turning higher. That relative-strength move is presented as a more useful gauge of whether Ethereum can lead a wider shift in market appetite.

Staking, ETFs and Corporate Treasuries Reshape the ETH Supply Story

Ethereum's fundamentals are also described as materially different from those of the previous bull market. Spot Ether ETFs began trading in the United States in July 2024, about half a year after spot Bitcoin ETFs debuted in January 2024. According to the video, BlackRock operates two Ether funds: ETHA, which holds Ether in cold storage, and ETHB, which stakes 70% to 95% of its holdings through Coinbase Prime. Fire Hustle says ETHB's staking design offers yield exposure that spot Bitcoin ETFs cannot provide.

The YouTube video cites more than 2.2 million ETH awaiting staking, with a roughly 39-day entry queue, while exits reportedly take only around two hours. Staked Ether is said to have reached a record 33.98% of supply — a dynamic that could reduce immediately tradable ETH if demand rises. Those staking dynamics sit atop a post-Merge supply picture: staking became part of Ethereum with its September 2022 shift to proof of stake, withdrawals were enabled in the April 2023 Shanghai upgrade, and the EIP-1559 fee-burn mechanism has at times made ETH supply net-deflationary during periods of heavy network usage.

Corporate holdings form another pillar of the thesis. Public companies collectively hold about 6.6% of Ether supply, she says, and Bitmine — chaired by noted ETH bull Tom Lee — is claimed to hold roughly 4.8%, targeting 5%. BitMine, whose shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BMNR, has drawn comparisons to the bitcoin-treasury playbook of Michael Saylor's Strategy. The video also attributes backing for Bitmine to Peter Thiel, Cathie Wood, Founders Fund and Galaxy Digital.

Tokenization Is Real, but Network Revenue Has Not Yet Followed

Fire Hustle is more reserved on Lee's tokenization and AI-agent argument. Ethereum reportedly hosts about $148 billion in stablecoins and more than $15 billion in tokenized real-world assets, but mainnet daily revenue is said to have fallen from nearly $40 million in early 2025 to roughly $10 million. Part of that gap reflects a structural shift in where activity happens: much transaction volume now runs on layer-2 rollups that settle to Ethereum while paying comparatively little in mainnet fees — economics made cheaper by the March 2024 Dencun upgrade's blob transactions.

In her framing, ETH/BTC strength, staking queues, ETF flows and exchange balances may matter more than headline Bitcoin dominance. The infrastructure case may be strengthening, but the video episode cautions that tokenization and AI-agent activity have not yet translated into sustained Ethereum fee growth. Unlike a sentiment-driven altseason call, each input she names is publicly observable — ETH/BTC quotes, staking queue data, ETF flow reports and exchange-balance figures.

Source: DailyCoin