The second most important digital currency by market capitalization, ETH, marks one of the most remarkable recoveries in the crypto world in 2025. After months of negative numbers, the token now boasts the best streak among the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies in a week. Meanwhile, Ethereum's dominance in total value locked (TVL) in DeFi exceeds 53%.
Until recently, the Ethereum (ETH) token suffered a strong massive sell-off that took it to levels not seen since the winter of 2022. On April 7, the currency plummeted to $1,388 per token and its investors began to fear the worst. Despite this, the Pectra upgrade became the starting point for recovery.
From April 7 until now, the performance of the token translates to a surprising +80%. Now its price is approximately $2,500 per token and its performance against Bitcoin exceeds +25% in a week, according to Messari. Despite this, year-to-date, the currency remains at -25.20%, suggesting that its bullish rally is still in its early stages.
According to recent data, ETH whales show significant dynamics, with important fund movements. Among them is a transfer to Coinbase Institutional of nearly 24,000 ETH. Meanwhile, activity in the decentralized finance or DeFi space is also increasing. Ethereum's dominance in terms of TVL is currently the highest since March.
Ethereum's dominance in DeFi is increasing
The increase in activity on the Ethereum network is one of the most robust after months of abandonment. The rise of rivals like Solana made many investors and developers doubt this network's ability to be competitive in the future. However, the Pectra upgrade generated new hopes for the potential and capacity for evolution of this network.
According to data from DeFiLlama, the TVL of Ethereum is $62.59 billion at the time of writing this note. This is a huge advantage over its closest rival (Solana) at $9.34 billion. The DeFi sector as a whole has assets locked valued at $117.5 billion, according to the same portal.
On the other hand, it is noted that the amount of ETH on exchanges has significantly decreased by 1.1% in the last 24 hours. There are 19.25 million tokens on these centralized trading platforms, while flows have also decreased considerably. In theory, this data shows that a greater number of coins have been sent to self-custody.
In this way, the recovery of Ethereum seems to take shape and analysts do not rule out a strong rally in the coming days. According to the CoinCodex portal, technical analysis indicators suggest that the currency has a high probability of rising. Of 33 indicators, 23 show bullish patterns. Meanwhile, market sentiment is positive at a ratio of 70%.
