MONEYWEB app instead? Bitcoinâs smaller brother Ethereum has been the crypto star of 2020 The Ethereum bubble popped in 2018, but 2020 was the year it came back to life. 00:01 ETH is volatile and prone to crazy price swings, so take the usual cautions before taking the plunge. Image: Shutterstock Bitcoin may have grabbed the headlines in 2020 with a price gain of 160% for the year to date, but this pales alongside its smaller brother, Ethereum, which clocked up a gain of 344% so far this year. Bitcoinâs market cap of $355 billion is more than five times that of Ethereumâs $67 billion, showing the huge gap between the crypto market leader and the number two.