In the past year, the cryptocurrency market has been a solo performance by Bitcoin, which has risen from $50,000 last July to a peak of $120,000 now, while Ethereum has been hovering around $3,000 for a year, being mocked as a 'stablecoin'. But today, Ethereum has finally broken through the key $3,300 level, peaking above $3,400; this price level has been sinking since it broke in early 2025, rebounding only when it touched $1,420.
In recent months, Ethereum's futures shorts have been piling up between $3,000 and $3,300, which has been the main reason for Ethereum's inability to rise in price. However, as Bitcoin reached new highs, coupled with bullish expectations for risk assets due to Trump’s policies and interest rate cuts, Ethereum used just two days to use these shorts as fuel to surge. In the past 24 hours, $300 million in shorts across the entire cryptocurrency market were liquidated, with Ethereum accounting for $182 million.
Today's rally is mainly driven by the market's expectation that the U.S. House of Representatives will pass the three cryptocurrency bills that were rejected yesterday; the final bill was re-voted in the early morning and passed for review. Last night there was a small twist when it was reported that Trump was preparing to dismiss Powell; although Trump denied it shortly after, it caused a brief drop in U.S. stocks and led to a sell-off in U.S. long bonds. In fact, Trump currently has no direct way to remove Powell, so this news was clearly intended to test market reactions; if Powell were to step down for some reason in the near future, the market response would be similar to that of last night.
Ethereum is starting to strengthen; cherish your quality assets. Bitcoin at $150,000, Ethereum at $5,000 is the minimum target.
From the dynamics of derivatives trading, the funding layout in the options market also echoes this bullish trend. Options, as an important tool for betting on asset price direction, have always been regarded as a barometer of market sentiment.
According to Deribit data, among the Ethereum options expiring on August 30, the contract with the highest open interest is the call option with a strike price of $4,000; more notably, the open positions for September continue to accumulate around $4,400; while in December, they are densely distributed above $5,000.
In other words, the market generally expects 'Ethereum to possibly reach new heights before the end of the year', breaking through the historical high of $4,878 set in November 2021. Since the Ethereum Foundation began structural reforms at the beginning of the year, the acceptance of ETH in traditional financial markets has been continuously improving. Following the MicroStrategy effect, companies like SharpLink Gaming have also begun to include ETH in their balance sheets as a long-term reserve.
Moreover, ETH's core position in on-chain finance also endows it with the inherent attributes of a 'digital sovereign asset' that can resist liquidity tightening and dollar fluctuations. In short, ETH is no longer just a 'crypto platform token', but is slowly transforming into an 'on-chain version of government bonds'.
Now, the 'top tokens' across various fields of DeFi are starting to stir, including key aspects of the Ethereum ecosystem such as Layer 2 and staking, which may benefit from this strong performance of Ethereum.
Overall, the cryptocurrency market is currently in a transitional phase where regulation is gradually becoming clearer and policy releases are intensive. Fund sentiment remains cautiously watchful, but structural positive factors are continuously accumulating. As the Federal Reserve's stance becomes more flexible, the legislative approach of 'Cryptocurrency Week' approaches, and institutional products like ETFs continue to advance, the market is expected to welcome a critical turning point for sentiment recovery and capital inflow in the second half of the year. In the short term, it is recommended to closely monitor the legislative progress of the three major cryptocurrency bills and the net fund flow changes of mainstream crypto ETFs as important reference indicators for judging market trends.
The current market still presents a structural pattern of 'sector rotation + mainstream stability', with funds seeking speculative space between narrative-driven and high volatility assets. Volume anomalies remain important signals for identifying market initiation and judging structural rotation, especially in small and mid-cap assets that provide more trading reference value. If the macro environment and regulatory landscape continue to release positive expectations, the market is expected to gradually accumulate momentum amidst fluctuations, laying the foundation for market recovery in the second half of the year.
