Seasoned cryptocurrency traders have been pondering what will happen once all Bitcoin tokens have been mined. We are still quite a few years away from that milestone, but the question at heart is whether Ethereum will rise to the occasion and become as valuable as Bitcoin.

For the time being, it seems as if cryptocurrency trading will continue to favor Bitcoin over Ethereum. While the original Ethereum token has seen an impressive price appreciation thus far in 2021, it doesn't seem to be attracting as much investor attention.

The reason for the downtrend isn't clear. Investors may have begun to worry about Ether's volatility, which has remained unchanged over recent months. However, Ether traded below the price level of its trading partner Bitcoin around the same time. It's not completely clear whether Ether has become a more volatile asset or has grown more bearish in recent days. In any case, a recent report from Coinbase indicates that Ethereum market capitalization is not rising as rapidly as it has previously done during bearish periods.

Once we get into evaluating the trading action of derivative instruments, we can see the disparity between Bitcoin and Ethereum. The latest data suggests that Ether is likely to continue losing market share over the coming months, as well as being priced in Bitcoin.

There is nothing to indicate that Ethereum will rise to the bullish levels previously seen this year. The fundamentals are not as strongas they have been in the past. Bitcoin has gotten a strong fundamental boost after being declared legal tender in El Salvador, a country that already counts the United States dollar as its fiat. This fundamental advantage is significant, and it will continue to position Bitcoin over Ethereum in terms of real-world circulation.

The cryptocurrency space is also getting hot again with the recent creation of a new parallel trading segment being spearheaded by the decentralized finance technology segment, which favors Ethereum, and which may end up boosting the network by making it far more efficient than the original Bitcoin blockchain. Notwithstanding this development, there aren't strong reasons why we should think Ether could become a market leader.