5-Year Crypto Price Comparison: Bitcoin Down 7%, Ethereum Down 61% Since 2021 Peak

Bitcoin trades at $64,499 in August 2026, just 7% below its 2021 cycle peak of $69,000, while Ethereum ($1,910), Solana ($75.93) and Chainlink ($9.53) sit 61%, 71% and 82% below their respective 2021 highs. Only two of the ten assets tracked are higher than in 2021: TRON, up 94%, and Zcash, up 58%. Everything else, from BNB to Dogecoin, is still underwater five years later.

Key takeaways

• Bitcoin is down only 7% from its 2021 peak of $69,000 to $64,499 in 2026, the smallest decline of any asset compared.
• Ethereum has fallen 61% in dollar terms since 2021 and 58% when priced in Bitcoin, meaning it lost ground against Bitcoin too.
• Solana is down 71% in dollars and 69% in Bitcoin terms, from $260 in 2021 to $75.93 in 2026.
• TRON is the biggest winner in the group, up 94% to $0.33, while Zcash is up 58% to $512.
• Dogecoin has lost 90% of its 2021 value, the steepest drop among the ten assets, falling from $0.74 to $0.07.

What do the 2021-to-2026 price changes look like across all ten assets?

The table below reproduces every price point and percentage change from the comparison, covering 2021 cycle highs against 2026 levels for Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Solana, TRON, Dogecoin, Zcash, Monero and Chainlink.

Project	2021 Price	2026 Price	Change
Bitcoin (BTC)	$69,000	$64,499	-7%
Ethereum (ETH)	$4,878	$1,910	-61%
BNB	$690	$606	-12%
XRP	$1.96	$1.00	-49%
Solana (SOL)	$260	$75.93	-71%
TRON (TRX)	$0.17	$0.33	+94%
Dogecoin (DOGE)	$0.74	$0.07	-90%
Zcash (ZEC)	$325	$512	+58%
Monero (XMR)	$518	$412	-20%
Chainlink (LINK)	$52.9	$9.53	-82%

Measured in Bitcoin terms rather than dollars, the losses for the largest altcoins are only slightly smaller than their dollar-denominated declines: Ethereum is down 58%, Solana down 69% and Chainlink down 81% against Bitcoin over the same five-year span.

Why has Bitcoin held up so much better than altcoins since 2021?

Bitcoin's 7% decline from its 2021 peak stands in stark contrast to double-digit and often 60-to-90% drawdowns across the rest of the list, indicating that capital consolidated into Bitcoin rather than spreading across the broader market as it did during the 2021 cycle. The gap is not marginal; it is the difference between a near-full recovery and a near-wipeout.

Bitcoin's near-flat five-year performance sets the baseline against which every other asset in this comparison is measured, since a 2021 cycle peak refers to the highest price an asset reached during the 2021 bull market rally, used here as the fixed starting point for each five-year comparison. Assets like Ethereum and Solana were pitched during 2021 as platforms that could eventually rival or exceed Bitcoin's role in the market. Five years later, both are down far more than Bitcoin in dollar terms, and when priced directly in Bitcoin, Ethereum is still 58% lower and Solana 69% lower than at the 2021 peak. That is a direct measure of relative underperformance against the asset they were built to compete with, not just a market-wide drawdown.

What does the Bitcoin-denominated comparison reveal that dollar prices hide?

Pricing Ethereum, Solana and Chainlink in Bitcoin rather than dollars strips out Bitcoin's own price movement and isolates how each altcoin performed purely relative to Bitcoin, and the results are barely better than the dollar figures. Ethereum's Bitcoin-denominated decline of 58% is nearly identical to its 61% dollar decline, and Solana's 69% Bitcoin-denominated drop is close to its 71% dollar drop.

This matters because a dollar-only comparison could be read as a broad market correction that hit every asset roughly the same way. The Bitcoin-denominated figures rule that reading out: these altcoins lost ground specifically against Bitcoin, not just against the dollar. For traders tracking relative strength across Ethereum, Solana and other large-cap tokens on perpetual markets, this five-year gap is a reminder that narrative-driven rallies can still end in underperformance against the market's base asset, a dynamic explored further in reading perp dex volume.

Why are TRON and Zcash the only two assets still above their 2021 prices?

TRON's 94% gain and Zcash's 58% gain are the only positive five-year returns in the comparison, and the post attributes TRON's strength to usage rather than speculation: it is described as the rail most USDT stablecoin volume actually settles on. That gives TRON a transactional demand base that does not depend on price narrative the way Solana's or Dogecoin's did in 2021.

Zcash's 58% gain is harder to attribute to a single cause, and the post explicitly notes that privacy alone does not explain it, since Monero, another privacy-focused asset, is down 20% over the identical period. The two assets share a category but moved in opposite directions, which means whatever pushed Zcash higher was specific to Zcash rather than a broad tailwind for privacy coins. What is notably absent from the green column is any smart-contract platform, stablecoin-adjacent utility token, or general Layer-1 competitor to Bitcoin.

Bottom line

Five years on from the 2021 cycle peak, the numbers split cleanly into three groups: Bitcoin near-flat at -7%, a cluster of major altcoins down 49% to 90% including Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin and Chainlink, and just two outliers in the green, TRON and Zcash. The post's framing is that the green column is defined by usage (TRON's stablecoin settlement role) rather than narrative, while the red column includes assets that were pitched in 2021 as Bitcoin's eventual successors. The next test for this pattern will be whether any smart-contract platform can close the Bitcoin-denominated gap shown here, rather than just recovering in dollar terms.