For most crypto players, the altcoin season is the most exhilarating moment — the thrill of sector rotation and the explosion of small-cap coins cannot be compared to the rise of a single mainstream coin. However, the explosion of altcoins always needs an 'engine'. In past bull markets, sometimes it was Bitcoin leading, sometimes Ethereum holding the flag, and the last MEME coin market was briefly ignited by SOL, but unfortunately lacked sustainability. This time, if anyone can truly carry the flag to drive the altcoin season, Ethereum undoubtedly has the highest probability.

At present, Ethereum has already broken through $3,800, refreshing this round's high point and is making a push towards the $4,000 mark. The significance of this breakthrough goes far beyond just the numerical increase.

Looking at other public chains, like SOL, its exchange rate is nearly halved compared to its previous highs. It’s not that SOL itself is so poor; it’s just that the previous round's frenzy caused its price to surge, even leading to doubts about Ethereum. Many people thus swapped ETH for SOL. But I had warned about the risks at that time: the wave of MEME coins had a fundamentally different nature compared to the ecological accumulation brought by long-term DeFi development. As a staunch holder of Ethereum, I do not reject other public chains; it’s just that objectively speaking, Ethereum, as the innovator and leader among all public chains, still remains unmatched in terms of the depth and breadth of its ecosystem.

The reason why Ethereum's rise can influence the altcoin season is fundamentally due to the vast number of projects it supports on-chain. Bitcoin now resembles a 'dedicated investment product' for Wall Street, with its movements sometimes even slightly disconnected from the overall crypto market; while Ethereum's rise is directly related to countless projects based on its ecosystem — this is what is most closely related to the interests of retail investors.

The DeFi projects I have always praised, such as AAVE and UNI, have already benefited first from the rise of Ethereum, which is a reflection of the signal. Simply put, when Bitcoin rises, the Wall Street giants are happy; when SOL rises, the capital behind it also benefits; but only when Ethereum rises is it the moment that retail investors can really share the dividends.

What is even more exciting is that a super-large DeFi project, WLFI, is about to go live. This stablecoin project is expected to break the hundred billion valuation, which may add more fuel to Ethereum. As a typical RWA track project, its launch could activate a new market for dollar-pegged stablecoins, and the explosion of the stablecoin ecosystem will undoubtedly benefit Ethereum the most.

Some say that this wave of Ethereum's rise is merely the result of allocations by U.S. companies, lacking real value support. But the fact is, when the scale of stablecoins explodes, when the locked value in DeFi continues to rise, and when the Layer2 ecosystem keeps thriving, these are all solid foundations for Ethereum's value growth.

For retail investors, Ethereum's breakthrough may not just be a change in a price number, but the prelude to a wealth opportunity — those altcoin projects rooted in the Ethereum ecosystem may be brewing their own explosion moment.

#山寨币突破 Thank you for your attention and likes.