Will Ethereum surpass Bitcoin? Bitcoin's moat is not in its ecosystem, and Ethereum's moat is not in its technology. The following image will help you see the reality.

Bitcoin is benchmarked against gold, while Ethereum is benchmarked against technology companies. The world's largest asset, gold, differs from the world's largest market cap company, Nvidia, by about 5 times, and the market cap difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum is 4.6 times. This already says a lot; I've never heard anyone claim that Nvidia's market cap should exceed that of gold, but in the crypto space, you can hear that Ethereum will surpass Bitcoin.

Gold (: Market cap is approximately 23.222 trillion dollars.
Nvidia ): Market capitalization is approximately $4.455 trillion.
Bitcoin (Bitcoin): Market cap is approximately 2.35 trillion USD.
Ethereum (Ethereum): Market capitalization is approximately 508.6 billion USD

Gold / Nvidia ≈ 5.21 times (23.222 / 4.455)
Bitcoin / Ethereum ≈ 4.62 times (2.35 / 0.5086)

The value of Bitcoin comes from "what it is"—a decentralized "digital gold." Its moat is built on a strong social consensus based on hard rules such as a constant total supply of 21 million coins and predictable issuance (halving every four years). This design makes it a unique inflation-resistant and asset hedge tool, whose core economic model is irreplaceable, while Ethereum's economic model does not possess this characteristic and ultimately cannot replace it.

The value of Ethereum lies in "what is built on it". Its massive and entrenched network effects (Network Effects) make it the de facto settlement layer and standard for "smart contracts and decentralized applications". It is not the fastest chain, but it is the busiest, richest, and has the most developers, making it a "digital metropolis". This powerful economic gravity makes it difficult to surpass, but not impossible.