Ethereum (ETH) is 4.0× the size of USDC (USDC) by market capitalisation. Over the past 1 year, USDC is ahead by 37.0 percentage points (ETH -36.9% against USDC +0.1%). Their daily returns move barely in opposite directions (correlation -0.21 across 399 shared trading days). ETH has been the more volatile of the two, at 62% annualised against USDC's 0%.
ETHUSDC
-0.21over 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 | ETH | USDC |
|---|---|---|
| Max drawdown (400d) | -66.5% | -0.3% |
| Risk-adjusted return (90d) | 0.36 | 0.05 |
| Best 30 days (past year) | +34.1% | +0.2% |
| Worst 30 days (past year) | -44.6% | -0.2% |
Relative strength over 90 days: ETH outperformed USDC by 19.1% — measured on the ETH/USDC ratio, so it holds regardless of market direction.