2025 has been the 12 months of “onerous belongings,” together with gold and bitcoin (BTC), the latter usually dubbed “digital gold.” As financial coverage eased, traders rotated into these inflation-hedging belongings.
However that’s not the entire story. In the event you had been laser-focused on gold and BTC this 12 months, you might have missed two even stronger performers: silver and ethereum (ETH). As gold and BTC cooled in current months, silver and ETH stole the highlight.
The chart beneath compares the year-to-date value appreciation of those 4 belongings. It’s clear that whereas ETH lagged the others till April, it’s since shot as much as overtake them.
Whereas gold and BTC get many of the press and the highlight, it’s not shocking that the second-largest belongings of their respective asset courses (treasured metals and crypto) have outperformed this 12 months. In actual fact, in an earlier version of this column, I’d written that primarily based on earlier crypto market patterns, ETH might properly outperform BTC in 2025—and to this point, that’s been the case.
How excessive might BTC and ETH go in 2025?
In my earlier column, I’d written that it might be affordable to anticipate BTC to probably hit $160,000 (all figures in U.S. {dollars} except in any other case specified). Different main Wall Road analysts, together with Citigroup and FundStrat’s Tom Lee, have urged that BTC might attain about $200,000 or extra earlier than this bull market is over. So, what does that imply for ETH?
If previous cycles are any information, this crypto bull market might nonetheless have legs.
ETH is presently buying and selling at $4,496, however a transfer to $8,000 wouldn’t be unreasonable. That will signify a 64% acquire from at present and would nonetheless be lower than 2x its earlier all-time excessive of $4,878 (set in November 2021). In each prior bull market since ETH’s launch in 2015, it has set a brand new all time excessive with features of not less than 270% from the earlier one. An roughly 100% acquire from its final peak would truly be comparatively conservative.
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Ethereum ETFs lead the cost in ETH resurgence
ETH ETFs did for ethereum in 2025 what BTC ETFs did for BTC in 2024: supplied the legitimacy and means for establishments and different giant traders to allocate a share of their capital to ETH with out exposing themselves to the dangers related to direct publicity to the cryptocurrency itself.
The chart beneath clearly exhibits how inflows to ETH ETFs picked up in April-Might 2025—coinciding with the start of ETH’s 2025 bull run. July and August had been bumper months for ETH ETFs with web inflows of $4.86 billion and $3.23 billion, respectively.
Canadian traders who’re bullish on ETH are spoiled for selection with regard to ETH ETFs. These ETFs are enticing to traders as a result of they are often held in registered accounts like tax-free financial savings accounts (TFSAs), registered retirement financial savings plans (RRSPs), first residence financial savings accounts (FHSAs), and others.
Study extra: The right way to make investments tax-free in a bitcoin ETF
Must you spend money on ETH treasury firms?
After the success of Technique (MSTR), Michael Saylor’s Nasdaq-listed BTC treasury firm, a brand new class of ETH-focused treasury firms have emerged. These firms observe the same playbook to MSTR: holding a good portion of their company reserves in ETH, aiming to build up extra over time via each value appreciation and staking rewards.
Ethereum staking entails locking up ETH to assist safe the community and validate transactions. In return, stakers earn extra ETH—considerably like dividends in conventional fairness investing.
Right here’s a comparability of the 2 most outstanding ETH treasury firms presently buying and selling on public markets that Canadian traders should buy:
So, do you have to spend money on an ETH treasury firm? It’s nonetheless far too early to inform how this new class of ETH-focused treasury firms will carry out. Each BMNR and SBET solely introduced their treasury methods in June or July 2025—that’s hardly sufficient time for significant value discovery. Most particular person traders in Canada might need to follow ETH itself or to ETH ETFs, of which Canada has many to supply.
