When it comes to cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum are two of the major household names.The former has spent more than a decade in answering one fundamental question: Can cryptocurrencies really become an institutional asset class?And the answer to that seems to be increasingly a yes.But for Ethereum, the challenge is very much a different one.The cryptocurrency has enjoyed a good summer, outpacing Bitcoin in terms of gains. In fact, the ETH/BTC ratio has climbed back above 0.031 - the first time in four months. Adding to that, money is beginning to also follow the price.US spot Ether ETFs attracted around $1.85 billion in August, their strongest month in about a year. That adds to yet another flashpoint where investors are not quite treating it merely as a leveraged bet on Bitcoin.And this is where things might get a little more interesting for Ethereum in the big picture.Bitcoin has already found its place, Ethereum not quiteThe institutional pitch for Bitcoin is relatively simple and straighforward. Scarce supply. Decentralised monetary asset. Digital gold.Whether or not investors agree with the valuation is another question, but Wall Street definitely understands what it is supposed to be.In the case of Ethereum, that is one that has always been harder to package.It is simultaneously a blockchain, settlement layer, collateral asset, and infrastructure underpinning stablecoins, tokenised securities and decentralised finance. That all sounds very messy and one can argue that the complexity is what has been a valuation handicap for Ethereum.But as time goes on, could that underlying complexity be the very thing that changes the narrative for Ethereum?Imagine this. Ethereum hosts roughly $156 billion of stablecoin assets, all the while institutional adoption through ETFs continues to deepen. And if tokenisation and on-chain finance continue expanding, investors may increasingly value Ethereum as exposure to the infrastructure underneath that ecosystem.Changing the equation takes timeIf Ethereum keeps rising merely because Bitcoin rises, nothing fundamental has changed.But perhaps another way to look at it is not through the lens of ETH/USD but perhaps ETH/BTC.So if ETH/BTC begins trending sustainably higher while ETF demand continues building, that would suggest genuine capital rotation and a considerable reassessment of Ethereum's relative value.It might be premature but the price movements this past summer may have provided a little glimpse of that. In looking at the cryptocurrency space, Ethereum does not need to replace Bitcoin. It simply needs to prove that it no longer needs Bitcoin to justify its own investment case.If Ethereum can continue outperforming while institutional flows persist through a challenging macro backdrop, the market may be witnessing something more important than another altcoin rally.It is early days and the cryptocurrency market is also still transitioning to a more mature phase. Things move faster here than in traditional markets but with all things, sometimes it still takes time.Whether Ethereum can truly rise up to live up to the billing will also highly depend on the ever changing landscape in cryptocurrencies but also the world of finance.But for now, at least one thing is clear. Bitcoin's institutionalisation was about proving that cryptocurrencies could become an asset. Ethereum's case is more about proving that a blockchain can become financial infrastructure - and be valued accordingly.And that battle seems to have only just begun. This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.