A new quantitative analysis from Sandmark puts the theory to a rigorous test — and the results are considerably more cautious than the narrative suggests. Copper is an industrial metal whose price tends to rise when markets expect stronger economic activity. When copper outperforms gold, it is often read as a signal of growing risk appetite and confidence in the global economy. On that basis, periods when copper outperforms gold might be expected to coincide with, or even precede, periods when Ethereum outperforms Bitcoin. The period that gave the theory its credibility turns out to account for the overwhelming majority of its apparent predictive power.