Is the return of ETHEREUM real?

ETH. is making a comeback after months of underperformance. It remains above 2,500.71 after nearly doubling since the low of early April.

The Pectra upgrade has seen rapid adoption, with over 11,000 EIP-7702 authorizations already processed in a week, indicating healthy adoption by wallets and Decentralized Applications.

Additionally, the increase in stablecoin activity, the growing institutional adoption of Ethereum's Layer 2 networks, and the closing of short positions on ETH are fueling renewed optimism in the market.

The Ethereum Pectra upgrade drives authorizations.

The latest major update to the Ethereum network, Pectra, was launched on May 7, marking a significant step forward for the ecosystem. In just one week since its activation, over 5,520 transactions and 11,055 authorizations have been processed under the new framework, according to Dune data, indicating strong adoption by wallets and dApps.

In an exclusive interview, Alvin Kan, COO of Bitget Wallet, told FXStreet that the Ethereum Pectra upgrade, which brought features like gasless transactions and session-based permissions, unlocks powerful capabilities and could bring the next wave of users.

The price of Ethereum increased nearly 100% from the April low of 1,385.71 to the May 13 high of $2,738, despite lagging behind BTC.

Bernstein analysts, led by Gautam Chhugani, identified three key drivers behind the recent surge in the price of Ethereum. First, an increase in stablecoin adoption and asset tokenization has reignited interest in Ethereum's role as fundamental infrastructure, highlighted by Stripe's acquisition of $1.1 billion of Bridge and Meta's renewed push towards stablecoins.