Ethereum jumped more than 8% over the past 24 hours, accelerating its momentum on Tuesday after an encouraging inflation report and amid other upbeat signs that have rekindled investor appetites for crypto and other risk-on assets.
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization cracked $2,700 at one point during the late afternoon Eastern Time before retreating slightly below that threshold. Even so, the coin is up a whopping 51% during the past seven days, according to crypto markets data provider CoinGecko.
“We’re mostly seeing continuing momentum for ETH,” Carlos Guzman, research analyst at crypto market maker GSR, told Decrypt. “ETH is finally in the limelight after having lagged throughout the latest cycle, and investors are once again turning their attention to it as sentiment shifts.”
ETH began rebounding from its prior plateau near $1,700 late last week following the successful Pectra upgrade to increase the Ethereum network’s speed and efficiency, and as the Trump administration appeared to retreat at least temporarily from its global trade war.
Tuesday’s jump came after the latest consumer price index—a widely watched inflation measure—remained relatively flat for April with prices rising 0.2%, surprising many analysts who’d expected a larger increase. Annual inflation climbed 2.3%, near the U.S. central bank’s 2% target that, if reached, would likely enable the bank to loosen its monetary policy.
“Markets are largely reacting positively today to good news on the U.S. inflation front with a lower-than-expected CPI print, which may open the path for the Fed to cut rates,” Guzman said, noting the Federal Reserve’s inflation concerns at its latest meeting. However, he added cautiously that “tariff impacts still haven’t been reflected in the data.”
Other altcoins were also in the green, with the token of the smart contracts platforms Solana (SOL) rising more than 5% over the past 24 hours, and popular meme coins Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) each up almost 4%. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset by market value, was recently trading hands over $104,200, a 1.4% gain on the week.
Two of the three major equity indexes closed in positive territory, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq and S&P 500 edging up 1.6% and 0.7%, respectively.
In a note to Decrypt, Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at crypto-focused research group Amberdata, wrote that ETH possessed “a lot of room… to continue to outperform, especially as risk assets (stocks) continue a rapid rebound.”
“When looking at Deribit [maintenance margin] positioning, we see that $2,800 has the most outstanding gamma for dealers, and signifies a potential resistance point from the options market,” Magadini wrote.
However, Magadini added that options price trends indicated “that the market was unprepared for this sharp ETH rally” (emphasis his).
“Positioning is not extended here,” he wrote. “There’s no reason ETH can’t keep going higher if we break beyond the $2,800 level.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
