Ethereum (ETH) is 39.6× the size of Cardano (ADA) by market capitalisation. Over the past 1 year, ETH is ahead by 32.9 percentage points (ADA -65.4% against ETH -32.5%). Their daily returns move closely together (correlation 0.82 across 399 shared trading days). ADA has been the more volatile of the two, at 78% annualised against ETH's 62%.
ADAETH
0.82over 399 shared trading days
Measured on daily returns rather than on prices. Two assets that both simply trend upward score near 1.0 on raw prices whether or not they move together, so returns are what answer the question people mean by correlation.
| Metric | ADA | ETH |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -83.5% | -66.5% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | -0.10 | 0.29 |
| Best 30 days (past year) | +38.4% | +34.1% |
| Worst 30 days (past year) | -42.7% | -44.6% |
Relative strength over 90 days: ETH outperformed ADA by 21.0% — measured on the ADA/ETH ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.