Does Ethereum fall more than Bitcoin in crashes?
On 103 Binance days when Bitcoin fell 5% or more, Ethereum fell more on 70.87%, but on big up days it rose more only 38.17% of the time.
Usually, yes, but not every time. On the 103 days Bitcoin fell 5% or more on Binance, Ethereum fell by more than Bitcoin on 70.87% of them. Ethereum's median fall on those days was 8.09%, against 6.28% for Bitcoin. In each year from 2020 to 2026, Ethereum's worst drop from a yearly high was also deeper than Bitcoin's.
The surprise is the other side. On Bitcoin's 131 days up 5% or more, Ethereum rose more only 38.17% of the time. These are past cases, not a forecast. They describe how the two coins moved together, not what they will do next.
For how far every big altcoin moves per 1% Bitcoin move, see Do altcoins follow Bitcoin?.
What did Ethereum do on Bitcoin's big down days?
We took every day when Bitcoin's daily move was 5% down or worse. Then we looked at what Ethereum did on the same day. A "daily move" here is the change from one daily close to the next. Binance's daily bars close at 00:00 UTC, the shared world clock.
The first row below is Binance USDT perps. A perp is a futures contract that never expires. The second row is Coinbase spot, meaning the coin itself priced in US dollars. We never mix the two venues.
| Market pair | Bitcoin down 5%+ days | Median Bitcoin move | Median Ethereum move | Ethereum fell more | Ethereum moved the opposite way |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT | 103 | -6.28% | -8.09% | 70.87% | 0.00% |
| Coinbase BTC-USD and ETH-USD | 220 | -6.54% | -7.35% | 57.27% | 6.82% |
On Binance, Ethereum's median fall was 1.19 times Bitcoin's. On Coinbase it was 1.10 times. One difference is time. Coinbase data starts in 2016, when the two coins moved together much less (an R squared of 0.07 that year, explained below). Binance data starts in late 2019.
Did Ethereum also rise more on Bitcoin's big up days?
No. We ran the same test for days when Bitcoin rose 5% or more.
| Market pair | Bitcoin up 5%+ days | Median Bitcoin move | Median Ethereum move | Ethereum rose more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT | 131 | +7.19% | +6.44% | 38.17% |
| Coinbase BTC-USD and ETH-USD | 247 | +7.14% | +6.12% | 36.03% |
On big up days, Ethereum's median gain was smaller than Bitcoin's, and it beat Bitcoin on only about 4 days in 10. So Ethereum was not just a bigger version of Bitcoin. It fell harder on the worst days and gained less on the best ones. This test does not say why. For how other coins behaved on the same days, see do altcoins follow Bitcoin.
What is beta, and did it stay steady?
Beta is a simple number for "how much did Ethereum move when Bitcoin moved 1%?" A beta of 1.10 means Ethereum moved about 1.10% on average for each 1% Bitcoin moved the same day. A beta of 1.00 means they moved the same amount.
On Binance daily data since 2019, Ethereum's beta to Bitcoin was 1.10 over 2,518 days. The R squared, which says how much of Ethereum's moves line up with Bitcoin's, was 0.68. It does not stay still:
| Year (Binance) | Days | Ethereum beta to Bitcoin |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 366 | 1.11 |
| 2021 | 365 | 1.02 |
| 2022 | 365 | 1.21 |
| 2023 | 365 | 0.88 |
| 2024 | 366 | 0.97 |
| 2025 | 365 | 1.47 |
| 2026 (to October 19) | 292 | 1.24 |
In 2023 Ethereum moved a little less than Bitcoin. In 2025 it moved about one and a half times as much. For the link between the two coins year by year, see Bitcoin and Ethereum correlation by year.
Which were Bitcoin's worst days, and what did Ethereum do?
Here are some of Bitcoin's 20 worst days on Binance. Ethereum fell more than Bitcoin on 16 of the 19 that have an Ethereum price. The 20th day came before Binance listed the Ethereum perp.
| Date | Bitcoin move | Ethereum move |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-03-12 | -39.98% | -45.22% |
| 2022-06-13 | -15.41% | -15.71% |
| 2021-05-19 | -14.44% | -27.64% |
| 2022-11-09 | -14.18% | -17.39% |
| 2026-02-05 | -14.04% | -15.00% |
| 2021-05-12 | -12.55% | -8.31% |
On 2021-05-19 Ethereum fell almost twice as much as Bitcoin. A week earlier, on 2021-05-12, it fell less.
How deep were the yearly drops, side by side?
For each calendar year we found the biggest fall from that year's running high close to a later low close. The peak resets each January, so this is a within-year drop. "Days to recover" counts from the low until the close first got back to that year's high.
| Year (Binance) | Bitcoin drop | Ethereum drop | Bitcoin days to recover | Ethereum days to recover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | -54.00% | -62.61% | 137 | 135 |
| 2021 | -53.22% | -57.25% | 91 | 97 |
| 2022 | -66.94% | -74.02% | 446 | 628 |
| 2023 | -20.01% | -27.35% | 42 | 28 |
| 2024 | -26.26% | -45.37% | 61 | 337 |
| 2025 | -32.05% | -60.04% | not yet | 103 |
| 2026 (to October 19) | -39.52% | -53.27% | not yet | not yet |
Ethereum's drop was deeper in all 7 years. Recovery is less clear. Ethereum got back to its yearly high faster than Bitcoin in 2020 and 2023, and much slower in 2022 and 2024. For a longer look at recoveries across 10 coins, see crypto drawdowns and recovery times.
How often did each fall 20% in one week?
We counted days when a coin's price was 20% or more below its close seven days earlier. Many of these days sit next to each other during one crash, so we also count episodes: the first such day after at least seven quiet days.
| Market (first day of data) | Days measured | 7-day fall of 10%+ | 7-day fall of 20%+ | 20% episodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binance BTCUSDT (2019-09-08) | 2,592 | 6.79% | 1.27% | 10 |
| Binance ETHUSDT (2019-11-27) | 2,512 | 10.83% | 2.39% | 18 |
| Coinbase BTC-USD (2015-07-20) | 4,103 | 8.41% | 1.46% | 23 |
| Coinbase ETH-USD (2016-05-23) | 3,795 | 13.25% | 3.40% | 39 |
Ethereum fell 20% in a week roughly twice as often as Bitcoin on both venues. By year, on Binance, the share of days with a 20% weekly fall was:
| Year (Binance) | Bitcoin | Ethereum |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1.91% | 2.73% |
| 2021 | 3.01% | 3.01% |
| 2022 | 3.56% | 7.40% |
| 2023 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 2024 | 0.00% | 1.09% |
| 2025 | 0.00% | 0.55% |
In 2021 they were equal. In 2023 neither had a single such day. In 2022 Ethereum's share was about double Bitcoin's.
What does this not show?
- The days bunch together. Binance Bitcoin had 107 days down 5% or more (103 of them with an Ethereum price). They fall in only 86 calendar weeks, and 59 are in 2021 and 2022. So there are fewer separate looks than the count suggests.
- It does not say why or what comes next. We only saw same-day moves. No table shows the days after a crash.
- The coins are survivors. Bitcoin and Ethereum are still traded. Coins that faded away could look different.
- 2026 is partial. Its rows end on October 19.
How we measured this
We used public daily price bars for Binance USDT perps and Coinbase spot, ending October 19, 2026. Each day's move is the change from one daily close to the next, and only days with an adjacent close are counted. We paired Ethereum with Bitcoin on the same venue and the same day. Beta is the slope of Ethereum's daily move on Bitcoin's, from a straight-line fit. We tested no trading rule and counted no costs. Four single daily closes in Binance's history disagree with its hourly records, so we do not quote those individual days.
Try this in Comparand
Ask your connected AI agent: "Get daily bars for Binance BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT for 2022. Find the days Bitcoin fell 5% or more, and show what Ethereum did on each."
- venue_bars returns open, high, low and close prices plus volume, as completed bars only. It supports a 1-day step and is free on every key.
- Your agent does the matching and the percent math. The tool does not return a beta or a ranked list.
For a Hyperliquid check, ask: "Show the correlation between BTC, ETH and SOL on a chosen day, and the volatility regime." hl_stats returns realized volatility (movement measured from past price changes), a volatility regime and a correlation matrix for up to 20 coins on one day. It uses Hyperliquid data, not the Binance numbers above, and costs $0.01 per call on pay as you go.
You can try 3 coins free, and the docs show how to connect an AI app. These are past cases, not a forecast.
The short version
- On Binance, Ethereum fell more than Bitcoin on 70.87% of Bitcoin's 103 days down 5% or more.
- On Bitcoin's big up days, Ethereum rose more only 38.17% of the time.
- Ethereum's yearly worst drop was deeper than Bitcoin's in all 7 years from 2020 to 2026.
- Ethereum fell 20% in a week about twice as often, but not in every year.
- Beta moved from 0.88 to 1.47 across years, so one number is not enough.
Questions people ask
Does Ethereum fall more than Bitcoin when Bitcoin crashes?
Usually, in our test. On the 103 days Bitcoin fell 5% or more on Binance, Ethereum fell by more than Bitcoin on 70.87% of them. Its median fall was 8.09%, against 6.28% for Bitcoin. On Coinbase spot the share was lower, at 57.27% of 220 days.
Is Ethereum's yearly worst drop deeper than Bitcoin's?
On Binance, yes in every year from 2020 to 2026 (2026 runs to October 19). The deepest was 2022: Bitcoin fell 66.94% from its January peak to its low, and Ethereum fell 74.02%.
What is Ethereum's beta to Bitcoin?
Beta is how much Ethereum moved, on average, for each 1% Bitcoin moved on the same day. On Binance daily data since 2019 it was 1.10. It changed by year, from 0.88 in 2023 to 1.47 in 2025.
How often did Ethereum fall 20% in a week compared with Bitcoin?
On Binance, Ethereum's 7-day return was down 20% or more on 2.39% of days. Bitcoin's was down 20% or more on 1.27% of days. The gap is not the same every year: in 2021 both were at 3.01%.