Bitcoin vs 
Ethereum
This is crypto's defining contrast: Bitcoin is deliberately simple — scarce digital money, changed rarely, secured by mining — while Ethereum is a programmable platform whose coin powers an economy of applications and can be staked for yield. Bitcoin's bet is that money should do one thing perfectly; Ethereum's is that a world computer is worth paying for. They fail and succeed on different axes, which is why serious portfolios often treat them as different asset classes rather than rivals.
12 months, both starting at 100 (AUD)
BTC → 48 · ETH → 37| Measure | BTC | ETH |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | A$1813.3B | A$322.0B |
| Rank | #1 | #2 |
| Price | A$90,338 | A$2,667.37 |
| 90-day change (AUD) | −16.4% | −10.4% |
| 12-month change (AUD) | −49.8% | −60.5% |
| From all-time high | −52.6% | −65.1% |
| Supply model | Capped: 21.0M max | No fixed maximum |
| AU exchanges we verify it on | 5 | 5 |
About Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, launched in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto: a peer-to-peer digital money with a fixed supply of 21 million coins, secured by proof-of-work mining. It remains the largest crypto asset by value and the reference point the rest of the market trades against.
About Ethereum
Ethereum, launched in 2015, introduced smart contracts — programs that run on the blockchain itself — and became the foundation for most of crypto's applications, from stablecoins to DeFi and NFTs. Its coin, ether, pays for computation on the network and can be staked to help secure it.
FAQ
Which is bigger, Bitcoin or Ethereum?
By market value today: Bitcoin (A$1813.3B vs A$322.0B). Size measures money invested, not quality — but it does measure liquidity, which affects how easily you can buy and sell.
Which performed better this year?
Over the past 12 months in AUD terms: BTC −49.8%, ETH −60.5% — the chart above shows the whole path, which matters more than the endpoints. Past performance is no indicator of future results, in either direction.
Can I buy both in Australia?
Yes — both are listed on AUSTRAC-registered exchanges we verify. BTC appears on 5 of our reviewed platforms and ETH on 5. Compare costs first on the fee calculator, and remember every crypto-to-crypto swap between them is a CGT event.
Should I hold BTC or ETH?
That's a personal decision we don't make for you — this page exists to make the structural differences clear so the choice is yours. What we'd say to anyone: understand what job each coin is designed for, size positions like the risk is real, and check the honest failure statistics before going further down the market-cap list.
Data from our market records (powered by CoinGecko), refreshed with the daily rebuild. General information only, not financial advice — we compare structure and history, we don't pick winners.