Cardano vs Ethereum: How do the performances of these altcoin giants stack up?

• As the Cardano vs Ethereum debate heats up, both coins have performed exceptionally well. 
• However, ADA has been giving investors more positive returns than ETH in 2023.

Ethereum [ETH] has faced stern resistance at the $2000 mark at press time, but its price action showed that a move above this critical resistance level was likely. Cardano [ADA] has also performed remarkably well in the markets over the past three months. A recent report exploring the Cardano roadmap highlighted that the Valentine upgrade helps developers extend the compatibility of the Cardano.

Read Cardano’s [ADA] Price Prediction 2023-24

Like Ethereum, Cardano bulls also faced down a bearish stronghold just overhead. The release of the first Hydra head was a major step in improving the scalability of the chain. It has recorded more gains than Ethereum since the turn of the year, which can be partially explained by the negative sentiment behind ETH over the past month.

Cardano vs Ethereum: How the altcoins fare

Source: ADA/USDT on TradingView

Measured from 2023’s swing low at $0.2434 to the swing high at $0.4617, ADA had recorded gains of 89.7%, which was more than Ethereum. In mid-February, ADA reached the $0.42 resistance but was forced to retrace back to the $0.3 support. At that time, Bitcoin fell from $25.2k to $20k and saw intense bearish sentiment arise in the crypto markets.

It took ADA bulls six weeks to drive a rally past the $0.42 resistance, but another wave of selling saw prices slump to the $0.378 support. The market structure remained intact but only just, as a daily session close below the $0.3715 mark would have shifted the market structure to bearish.

The RSI has hovered about the neutral 50 mark over the past month, but the OBV saw a slight uptick over the past two weeks. This suggested demand was present, but momentum was sluggish as ADA bounced between $0.38 and $0.41.

Source: ETH/USDT on TradingView

Ethereum, however, has been on an uptrend for most of 2023. On 11 January, the daily market structure of ETH was flipped from bearish to bullish after the prices rose above a recent lower high at $1352.

Measured from the swing low at $1190 to the swing high at $2141, ETH registered gains of 80%. Ethereum also saw a retracement from $1700 in mid-February, but unlike Cardano, it was able to break that resistance swiftly after the pullback.

At the time of writing, the bullish structure of Ethereum remained intact on the daily timeframe. The recent higher low was at $1686, and a move beneath this level would denote a bearish structure shift. To the north, the $2000 and the $2155 levels of resistance have been important in the past.

The recent move above $2000 in mid-April was halted at $2141. This was similar to Cardano’s trend in 2023. One of the key differences was the pace of the bullish recovery in late April after a pullback.

Read Ethereum’s [ETH] Price Prediction 2023-2024

The ETH D1 indicators showed the king of altcoins had shifted from strongly bullish toward neutral. The RSI rose above neutral 50 again after a drop to 43 during the pullback from $2141 to $1785. At the time of writing, it was back above neutral 50 but was yet to climb above 60.

Meanwhile, the OBV also saw a dip during the pullback of the past two weeks but began to note minor gains over the past four days.

Ethereum in an accumulation phase

Source: Santiment

The data from Santiment for the past six months suggested that Ethereum bulls were in a better position than the Cardano bulls, as inferred from the price action. For Cardano, the MVRV ratio was just below the zero mark and showed strong profit-taking activity over the past month.

It also showed an undervalued asset, but the daily active addresses have slowly trended downward over the past two weeks.

This could be indicative of decreased demand for ADA tokens. The mean coin age was also in a downtrend. This underlined the large token movement between addresses and was a sign of selling pressure.

Source: Santiment

On the other hand, the mean coin age of Ethereum has slowly trended upward since late March. In the past two weeks, this metric was in sharp contrast with Cardano’s mean coin age. The accumulation phase for Ethereum was another sign that ETH bulls were in a better position than their ADA counterparts.

The MVRV ratio saw a spike in the past few days and remained in positive territory. Combined with the asset’s proximity to the $2000 resistance, it could prompt holders to cash out at a profit and lead to losses in the coming days.

Ethereum bulls get bragging rights, but Bitcoin…

The fact that ETH could push past April’s resistance in the $1950 region, while ADA continued to toil beneath the $0.4-$0.41 region, showed that Ethereum bulls were stronger than Cardano bulls. Therefore, it was more likely that Ethereum would register strong gains than Cardano provided Bitcoin [BTC] does not see a violent sell-off.

Bitcoin was beneath a significant resistance zone in the $30k-$32k area. It remained unlikely that it would rally strongly past this area in the coming weeks without a significant retracement, although it was not a guarantee. Therefore, ADA bulls can wait for a move to $0.378 or the $0.35 levels before buying.

Moreover, Ethereum investors can wait for a dip to $1800-$1850 to buy. But a much riskier idea would be to buy a breakout past $2000, although that could turn out to be a liquidity hunt before a reversal.

Which horse does ChatGPT back in this race?

ChatGPT had some incredible expectations of Cardano for 2023. While the bot is not designed to provide accurate predictions and only has access to data up to September 2021, it can be fun to provide its jailbroken version, DAN, with bits of information and ask for its take.

Regarding the Cardano vs Ethereum argument, DAN said:

Source: OpenAI

This prediction should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, but the chat bot expects Cardano to be far more bullish than Ethereum for the remainder of 2023. Let’s see how the price action of either asset pans out over the coming months, and whether Bitcoin can initiate another rally like early 2023.