ETH vs BTC Media Narrative (GDELT)
News coverage naming Bitcoin versus Ethereum, per 100,000 articles (7-day window) - how the media's attention splits between the two largest networks.
What is it?
This chart plots two series built on the same rule: the first counts articles that name Bitcoin, the second those that name Ethereum, per 100,000 articles monitored by GDELT on a sliding 7-day window. Both series follow the same counting method, so comparing them is legitimate: the gap between the two curves measures how media attention is split between the two largest networks. The source, the GKG 2.0, publishes one file every fifteen minutes built from English-language and translated articles. The history starts in February 2015; a day below 75% of its files is not computed, and three periods of incomplete or missing publication (October-November 2020, August 2021, 15 June to 1 July 2025) are absent.
How to read
Two lines, same unit (shares per 100,000 articles), Bitcoin in orange and Ethereum in blue. Across the full history, Bitcoin occupies a clearly larger place: median 59.8 against 10.7 for Ethereum, with very different distribution tails (for Bitcoin, 5% of sessions below 10.1 and 5% above 165.4; for Ethereum, below 0.17 and above 21.6). A logarithmic scale remains useful to follow both curves over the whole history. The gap compresses during Ethereum-specific episodes and widens when coverage concentrates on Bitcoin.
Key zones
No zones are drawn, but there are four historical markers. Bitcoin: maximum 513 on 2017-12-13, annual median from 13.9 in 2015 to 83.3 in 2024. Ethereum: maximum 69 on 2022-09-18 (the Merge week), annual median from 0.1 in 2015 to 16.4 in 2024. Ethereum's early years are close to zero (network launch in the summer of 2015), so BTC/ETH comparisons before 2017 are not meaningful. The ratio of the two series has a historical median of 6.9.
What to observe
Watch the gap as much as the levels. A compression of the gap indicates a rising Ethereum narrative: it reaches its historical maximum on 2022-09-18 (69), around the Merge, and Ethereum coverage finds a monthly peak of 49 in May 2024 during the ether ETF approval. Conversely, December 2017 is a purely Bitcoin moment (513 against 12.8 for Ethereum). Divergences between the two lines during a single episode show which of the two stories the press is telling.
Historical context
December 2017: Bitcoin peaks at 513 on 2017-12-13 (monthly median 373), Ethereum at 12.8. May 2021: Bitcoin 334 (median 190) and Ethereum 40.5 (median 30.0), Ethereum's highest level before the Merge. Terra/Luna in May 2022: Bitcoin 156 and Ethereum 14.2. The Merge of September 2022 takes Ethereum to its historical maximum of 69 on 2022-09-18. FTX in November 2022: Bitcoin 118, Ethereum 19.6. The spot ETF approval in January 2024 lifts Bitcoin to 256 on 2024-01-14 (median 145) and Ethereum to 20.3; the ether ETF approval in May 2024 takes Ethereum's month to 49.2.
Expert notes
Both series rest on the same rule (the asset name in the article metadata), which allows a direct comparison, but each has its limits: Ethereum's early years are almost empty, and the coverage mostly reflects professional English-language press and its translations. The gap between the two curves is an attention measure, not a measure of market capitalisation or network usage. A spike specific to Ethereum is often the echo of a technical or regulatory event, not of capital flows.
Common mistakes to avoid
Ethereum catching up with Bitcoin in the press = Ethereum outperforming in price ❌. Coverage and price are two different things, and a coverage spike can accompany good news as well as bad. The two curves are not a displayed ratio: it is the visual gap that matters, and a narrowing gap can unwind within weeks.
Programmatic access
REST API
curl -sS \
'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/narrative-intelligence/metrics/narrative-gdelt-eth-vs-btc-narrative/data?timeframe=90d' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'MCP server
{
"tool": "get_chart_value",
"metric_id": "narrative-gdelt-eth-vs-btc-narrative",
"timeframe": "1y"
}Required tier: pro. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.
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Institutional disclaimer
Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.