Ethereum extended its blistering rally on Wednesday breaking $4,652, up over 50% in the past month, as it edges toward breaking another record. It’s now 5% away from the $4,878 all-time high set in 2021.
Ethereum ETFs have seen “over $1 billion in daily inflows, indicating a rising institutional and retail demand on Ether,” Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at CEX.IO, the crypto exchange, said in comments shared with DL News.
Active usage of the blockchain is also up. “Ethereum’s active addresses surged to the highest level since early 2021,” Otychenko said, as transaction counts pass 2021 records.
His optimism comes as the market is flashing several bullish signals.
The Trump administration approved a stablecoin bill that is widely seen as a bullish sign for Ethereum as most stablecoins run on the blockchain.
Another factor is the new inflation data that has emboldened US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to urge the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 50 basis points next month.
Bessent told Fox Business that a weakening labour market and steady inflation meant the Fed should “make up for the delay” in cutting interest rates, following a tame July Consumer Price Index report released Tuesday.
The market is counting on those cuts. The CME FedWatch tool now shows a 96.4% chance of a 25 basis point cut in September, up from 84.4% on Tuesday ahead of the report.
Lower interest rates support risk-on assets like crypto by making capital cheaper and pushing investors away from bonds and toward higher-yielding alternatives.
Wall Street echoed the optimism, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing at record highs on Tuesday evening, led by tech and airline stocks.
Bitcoin remained stable trading above $120,000, recovering from an overnight dip to $118,200 and just shy of its $123,200 record set in mid-July.
Options open interest in BTC and ETH has surged to $43bn and $14bn respectively, near yearly highs, signaling possible volatility around the Fed’s decision in September.
The US dollar index slipped to a two-week low, while gold prices eased from last week’s record at over $3,500.
President Donald Trump kept up public pressure on Fed Chair Jerome Powell, even floating potential successors before Powell’s term ends in 2026.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin is up 1.3% over the past 24 hours to trade at $120,013.
- Ethereum is up 8.4% to trade at $4,652.
What we’re reading
- Why Wall Street analyst Tom Lee is betting on Ethereum with a $20bn raise — DL News
- Jim Bianco on Why 0% Interest Rates and Money Printing Are Gone for Good — Unchained
- Crypto is all that’s propping up London’s miserly capital raising statistics — City AM
- Why are Circle & Stripe snubbing ETH? — Milk Road
- Do Kwon pleads guilty to fraud in connection with $40bn Terra failure — DL News
Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.