According to a JPMorgan report published on May 14, 2026, the performance of Ethercoin and altcoins may continue to underperform Bitcoin (BTC) if activity on crypto networks does not increase sustainably.
The bank’s analysts, led by director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, said that despite the overall market recovery after the impact of the Iran conflict, Bitcoin continues to perform well than the rest of the digital assets in 2023 and beyond.
The report, revealed by The Block, argues that this gap can only be reversed. As the actual usage of the network increasesespecially in applications, decentralized finance, and transactional activities.
In that context, Bitcoin outperformed Ethereum in both exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and institutional futures positioning. These contracts, traded on the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), reflect the exposure of large investors through financial derivatives. According to JPMorgan, Bitcoin ETFs have recovered about two-thirds of the outflows recorded after the market correction, while Ether ETFs have only recovered about one-third.
On the same line, Bitcoin futures positioning almost fully recoveredwhile that of the ether remains below its previous level. The bank interprets this action as the institution prioritizing Bitcoin over Ether.
Similarly, the report adds: The market continues to be in a phase of risk reduction After the episodeDeleveraging”, the process by which investors reduce their exposure or leverage.
In the case of altcoins, JP Morgan believes that the weakness of altcoins after 2023 will be due to decreased liquidity, decreased market depth, Growth in decentralized finance activities is limited and multiple security incidents. These factors have combined to reduce capital inflows into the broader ecosystem of cryptocurrency networks.
The report notes that Ethereum has upcoming protocol upgrades such as Gramsterdam and Hegota. May not be enough to change relative performance This is because technological improvements have not been able to lead to a sustained increase in activity on the network.
It is worth noting that, as reported by CriptoNoticias, although JPMorgan has doubts about Ethereum’s ability to generate sufficient activity, the bank recently launched a tokenized currency fund on the network that uses Ethereum infrastructure for operations and is intended to support stablecoins.
According to the bank’s findings, if the next Ethereum update does not significantly expand network usage, the market could further consolidate Bitcoin’s dominance and create an environment where altcoins are more exposed to liquidity cycles than technical narratives.
