Ether’s Surge to $2,850 Fizzles as Crypto Market Slides, Bitcoin Drops Below $96K
Ethereum’s ether (ETH) showed signs of strength over the weekend, briefly fueling investor optimism before succumbing to a broader market downturn on Monday.
Despite muted trading due to the U.S. holiday, ETH surged as much as 7% to reach a session high of $2,850, outperforming other major cryptocurrencies. However, the gains were short-lived, with ETH retreating to $2,730 as selling pressure mounted across the market. Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC) slid from just above $97,000 to $95,500. At the time of writing, ETH maintained a modest 2% gain over the past 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 Index and BTC registered losses of around 2%.
Market participants noted that similar price patterns in late January and early February led to significant corrections. On those occasions, ETH’s rapid rise was followed by a sharp downturn, with BTC plunging 13% and ETH tumbling 35% to nearly $2,000 amid low-volume weekend trading and concerns over macroeconomic uncertainties.
The latest ETH price movement comes amid turbulence in the memecoin sector, with controversies surrounding the Argentina-linked LIBRA token on Solana and the BNB Chain-based BROCCOLI token, which gained attention after former Binance CEO CZ revealed his dog’s name.
Aran Hawker, CEO of trading automation platform CoinPanel, suggested that ether’s rally wasn’t necessarily a sign of true outperformance but rather a market recalibration.
“ETH’s recent price action isn’t about dominance—it’s more of a catch-up move,” Hawker told CoinDesk via Telegram. “Some traders may have rotated funds from SOL back into ETH, but there’s no clear structural change or trend reversal yet. Any perceived strength could easily be erased with the next major market shift.”
However, some analysts see potential for a longer-term trend reversal. Joel Kruger, a market strategist at LMAX Group, pointed out that ETH may be signaling the end of its multi-year downtrend against BTC.
“There’s evidence that ETH could finally be forming a major bottom against bitcoin after trending downward since 2021,” Kruger noted in a Monday market update. “Watching ETHBTC’s monthly high will be crucial—if it breaks above that level, it could signal a shift in momentum.”
Data from CoinGlass shows increased interest in ETH trading relative to BTC. Over the past 24 hours, open interest for ETH futures jumped 12% to 9.27 million contracts (worth nearly $2.6 billion), with the surge led by offshore exchanges such as Binance and Gate.io. In contrast, BTC futures open interest saw only a 1% uptick.
As the week unfolds, traders will closely monitor macroeconomic factors and broader market trends to determine whether ether’s latest rally has staying power or if another downturn is on the horizon.
