Last night, Ethereum shot up like it was on steroids, directly breaking through the $4300 mark and setting a new high in nearly four years. In the past 24 hours, it surged by 6.88%, with a market capitalization soaring to $518.7 billion, and the ETH/BTC exchange rate skyrocketing by 103.7%. It’s practically using its strength to tell everyone: who says only Bitcoin can rise?
This surge is certainly not a coincidence. First of all, the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade has finally shown its power, significantly improving network efficiency, reducing fees, and speeding things up, making developers and users happy. The days of waiting half a day for a transfer and spending dozens of dollars on fees are gone; now, using Ethereum is incredibly smooth.
More importantly, institutional funds are pouring in wildly. Top universities like Harvard and Brown are buying ETH ETFs, and even traditional financial giants can't hold back anymore. Data shows that in the past week, institutions have net bought over $2 billion worth of Ethereum through ETFs, a buying momentum that has never been seen before.
The shorts being liquidated is like adding fuel to the fire. In the past 24 hours, $369 million worth of liquidations occurred across the network, with more than half of that being from shorting Ethereum. Just think about it: those who bet on Ethereum falling were forced to close their positions and buy, and this passive buying directly pushed the price even higher, creating a perfect cascading effect.
The ETH/BTC exchange rate soaring by 103.7% is particularly noteworthy. This means that holding Ethereum yields far more than Bitcoin, and market funds are flowing from Bitcoin to Ethereum. Once this rotation effect takes shape, it often lasts for a considerable amount of time.
Wall Street analyst Tom Lee bluntly stated: Ethereum is replicating Bitcoin's crazy trend from back in the day. He predicts that ETH is expected to challenge $6000 by the end of the year, and the reason is simple — the technical levels have broken through, the fundamentals have improved, and the capital is abundant. With these three major positive factors overlapping, it would be strange if it doesn't rise.
Of course, the risks must also be acknowledged. After a rapid surge, a technical pullback is inevitable. The $4300 level has accumulated a large amount of profit-taking orders, and there may be fluctuations in the short term. However, from a medium to long-term perspective, the story of Ethereum has just begun. The explosion points of ecosystems like DeFi, NFT, and Layer 2 have yet to be fully unleashed.