$ETH Over the past 24 hours, ETH underperformed $BTC by about 0.44 percentage points, but its rebound this morning was almost identical. The two only started to diverge again in the past hour.
At 12:23 on October 14 (Beijing time), BTC was trading at 83,739.97 USDT on Binance spot, up 0.41% over a rolling 24-hour period; ETH was at 2,511.71 USDT, down 0.03%. Looking only at these percentage changes, it is easy to overlook that the two recovered in tandem earlier this morning.
Now consider the hourly data for completed hours: comparing the hourly closing prices at 08:00 and 12:00 Beijing time, BTC rose from 83,169 to 83,700.01 USDT, a gain of about 0.64%; ETH rose from 2,497.95 to 2,513.60 USDT, a gain of about 0.63%. Over this same period, their performances were similar.
But looking just at the hour from 11:00 to 12:00, BTC rose about 0.06%, while ETH fell about 0.04%. This shows that ETH joined the morning rebound, but that alone is not enough to conclude it has gained relative strength, nor should its 24-hour underperformance be taken to mean it is bound to catch up.
Next, use the 12:00 closing prices as a common starting point and compare the cumulative percentage changes at the 13:00 and 14:00 closes. Only if ETH outperforms BTC at both closes will we consider it an early sign of short-term relative strength; if its relative advantage disappears afterward, we will withdraw that assessment. This tests which asset is stronger—even if ETH outperforms, it may simply be falling less.