Ethereum vs Bitcoin: What's the Difference?
5 min read · Updated July 22, 2026
Bitcoin and Ethereum are often mentioned in the same breath, but they were built for different reasons. Understanding what sets them apart helps you make sense of the whole crypto market.
Different purposes
Bitcoin was designed to be digital money — a scarce, decentralized store of value and payment network. Its focus is security and predictability.
Ethereum is a programmable platform. Beyond sending value, it runs smart contracts: self-executing code that powers DeFi, NFTs, stablecoins and thousands of applications. Think of Bitcoin as digital gold and Ethereum as a global computer.
Supply and monetary policy
Bitcoin has a hard cap of 21 million coins, ever. This fixed scarcity is central to its value proposition.
Ethereum has no hard cap, but since the EIP-1559 upgrade a portion of every transaction fee is burned. When network activity is high, more ETH is burned than issued, making ETH's supply potentially deflationary.
How they're secured
Bitcoin uses proof-of-work: miners spend electricity solving puzzles to add blocks. It's battle-tested but energy-intensive.
Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake in 2022, replacing miners with validators who stake ETH. This cut Ethereum's energy use by over 99% and enabled staking rewards.
Which should you care about?
They aren't mutually exclusive — many people hold both. Bitcoin appeals to those seeking a simple, scarce store of value. Ethereum appeals to those who want exposure to the broader world of decentralized applications.
Track both live, alongside the top 100 coins, on the tokens page.