BTC vs ETH: The DCA Backtest
The identical plan — $100 on the first trading day of each month — run on both assets over their shared history (Nov 2017 → Oct 2026, $10,800 invested each). Every number below is computed from real daily closes; nothing is annualized away or cherry-picked.
Verdict on this window: $10,800 invested into BTC grew to $56,249, versus $50,092 in ETH. Different start dates shuffle this result — the rolling analysis below shows how often.
The same $100/month, side by side
Both positions month by month across the shared window: the dashed line is cash paid in ($10,800 total), the two curves are what BTC and ETH were worth along the way. Where the curves separate is where the decade's story lives.
Does the winner depend on when you started?
One full-window result can mislead — maybe the winner just had a better final year. So we ran the head-to-head across EVERY possible 5-year start month in the shared history:
Side-by-side numbers
Data through Oct 2026, refreshed daily.
Digital gold versus programmable collateral
Bitcoin and Ethereum are often bought as one 'crypto' decision, but the shared window since 2017 shows two different assets: BTC as the scarcity/reserve narrative with the shallower drawdowns of the pair, ETH as a technology bet whose fee-burn, staking and app-platform story reprices harder in both directions. The win-rate table quantifies how often each personality led.
Correlation is the caveat: in every real panic the pair fell together, so holding both diversifies the thesis, not the crash. A monthly plan into either had to survive multiple −75%+ drawdowns in this window — position size, not coin choice, is what made that survivable.
FAQ
On the shared window measured here, BTC finished ahead (BTC: +421% vs ETH: +364% on identical monthly buys). "Better" is window-dependent — the rolling head-to-head above tells you how stable that verdict was. Past performance doesn't predict the future; this page tells you what happened, not what will.
Yes, and if the pair is highly correlated the blend will behave like either one alone — check how similar the two curves above are before assuming a split adds diversification. Our portfolio calculator lets you backtest any weighting of the two on the same real data.
Real dividend- and split-adjusted daily closes for BTC and ETH, compared strictly over their shared history (Nov 2017 → Oct 2026), refreshed daily and validated for gaps and staleness. Fees, spreads and taxes are not modelled — see the methodology page.
Run the plan on a real exchange
Five exchanges where DCA — and tokenized stocks & ETFs — actually work, each with a real discount. Pick one, copy the code, trade cheaper.
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