Ethereum'due south native token Ether (ETH) plunged aslope other cryptocurrencies on December. 4. Yet, its motility downside did not deter information technology from hitting a three-twelvemonth high against Bitcoin (BTC), the world'southward leading crypto by market capitalization.

The ETH/BTC exchange charge per unit jumped a footling over 11.fifty% to hitting 0.0835 BTC for the first time since May 2022. The pair's price rally appeared in contrast to Ether's 15% price drop against the U.S. dollar on December. four, which appeared in the wake of a market-broad selloff that saw Bitcoin plunging past as much as 21% intraday.

ETH/USD daily toll chart. Source: TradingView

The ETH vs. BTC "hedge" narrative emerges

While Ether's losses were substantial, they were relatively milder compared to Bitcoin in USD terms every bit the ETH/BTC pair surged to a iii-yr high. At the aforementioned time, some analysts believed that investors started treating the 2d-largest cryptocurrency every bit a haven against Bitcoin during the Dec. iv crash.

"It seems that investors are taking ETH equally a hedge here," said Crypto Birb, an independent market annotator in a Dec. 4 tweet, pointing to a four-hour ETH/BTC price chart (every bit shown below) that showed the pair retracing sharply later testing its 200-period moving boilerplate (the orange moving ridge) equally support.

ETH/BTC four-hour price chart featuring 200-period MA support. Source: TradingView

Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, chief product officer at Bitpanda, noted that ETH/BTC'southward November close was the best one in the last 45 months, meaning that the bulls all the same had "some power left for an boosted run."

"Ethereum is outperforming Bitcoin past a large margin this twelvemonth [...] It increased its market authorisation to 22%. The number of active addresses on the network continues to climb while the net issuance of ETH continues to fall which might be the primary reason for its rapid rise."

Technical outlook

As Cointelegraph covered earlier, Ether has shown the prospects of continuing its up trend due to a technical support pattern, dubbed Ascending Triangle.

Related: Ethereum 'about to get parabolic' against Bitcoin equally analysts weigh BTC bear case

On Dec. 4, the ETH/BTC pair bankrupt out of the Ascending Triangle range to the upside, accompanied by a slight increase in its trading volumes. In a "perfect" world, the pair'southward move upside should stretch until it hits levels at length equal to the maximum distance between the Triangle's upper and lower trendlines when measured from the breakout point.

In a "perfect" world, the pair'southward motion upside should stretch until it hits levels at length equal to the maximum altitude between the Triangle's upper and lower trendlines when measured from the breakout point.

ETH/BTC weekly cost chart featuring Ascending Channel pattern. Source: TradingView

As shown in the chart above, the Triangle's upside target, from the breakout signal nearly 0.077 BTC, puts the profit target nearly 0.one BTC.

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