Ethereum briefly climbed to a two-week high of $4,500 on Thursday, extending a strong quarterly performance even as traditional markets navigated significant volatility.
The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up 1.6% over the last 24 hours, per CoinGecko data. Despite it being considered one of the most bearish quarters, Ethereum closed Q3 with an outsized return of 74%, according to CoinGlass data, while posting a 34% gain for the year.
Unlike U.S. equities & gold, the broader crypto market is experiencing a sharp uptick in buying pressure amid the U.S. government shutdown, resulting in nearly 6% and 8% uptrends for the top two cryptocurrencies.
On prediction market Myriad, launched by Decrypt‘s parent company DASTAN, users are growing increasingly bullish about Ethereum’s prospects. Some 72% now expect Ethereum to surge to $5,000 rather than drop to $3,500, up from 66% on Thursday.
Ethereum’s tailwinds
A shift in trader sentiment is providing tailwinds for Ethereum, experts told Decrypt.
“Bearish options market positioning in September has switched at the beginning of October,” Thahbib Rahman, research analyst at options data analytics platform Block Scholes, told Decrypt. “Options expiring in the next couple of weeks now express a higher relative demand for calls than puts.” Rahman cautioned that this newfound optimism may be short-lived, as the positive sentiment is limited to October only, and that “longer-term put options still carry a premium.”
Echoing a positive near-term view, Czhang Lin, head of LBank Labs, told Decrypt that, “Ethereum looks solid heading into the fourth quarter.”
“October tends to be a strong month for crypto,” he added, noting that, “Ethereum has held up better than many assets even with equities under pressure.”
Lin expects some short-term choppiness but believes the overall momentum will remain positive.
Analysts are closely watching whether digital asset treasuries (DATs) will resume accumulating Ethereum, a key source of institutional demand that has recently paused.
“ETH DATs have paused with equities under pressure, but I see it as a pause, not a pullback,” Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget, told Decrypt.
Lin echoed a similar sentiment, adding that if these institutional buyers resumed their purchases, “it would be an important boost,” considering the uptick in total Ethereum staked.
“This confluence could push the Ethereum prices higher faster,” he added, with Lee suggesting such a development would add “real conviction to a fourth quarter breakout scenario.”
