Over the past year, the cryptocurrency market has been a one-man show for Bitcoin, rising from $50,000 in July to a high of $120,000, while Ethereum has been hovering around $3,000, mockingly called a "stablecoin". However, today Ethereum finally broke through the critical $3,300 level, reaching as high as $3,400, a price level that has been declining since early 2025 until rebounding from $1,420.
VX: TZ7971
In the past few months, Ethereum's futures short positions have been stuck between $3,000 and $3,300, the main reason for its prolonged stagnation. However, with Bitcoin reaching new highs and risk assets looking bullish due to Trump's policies and rate cut expectations, Ethereum used these short positions as fuel to surge in just two days. In the past 24 hours, $300 million in short positions were liquidated in the entire crypto market, with Ethereum accounting for $182 million.
Today's rally is mainly due to market expectations that the U.S. House will pass the three major cryptocurrency bills that were previously rejected. The bill was indeed re-voted and passed in the early morning. Last night, there was also a small incident where it was rumored that Trump was preparing to dismiss Powell, though Trump quickly denied this, causing a brief U.S. stock market dip and long-bond sell-off. In fact, Trump cannot directly remove Powell, so this news was clearly meant to test market reactions.
Ethereum is starting to strengthen, so cherish your quality assets. Bitcoin at $150,000 and Ethereum at $5,000 are the minimum targets.
From derivatives trading dynamics, options market fund allocation also echoes this bullish trend. Options, as a key tool for betting on asset price direction, have always been seen as a market sentiment indicator.
According to Deribit data, among Ethereum options expiring on August 30, the most open interest is for call options with a strike price of $4,000; more notably, September positions are continuously accumulating around $4,400, and December positions are densely distributed above $5,000.
In other words, the market generally believes that "Ethereum may reach a new peak before year-end", potentially breaking the historical high of $4,878 from November 2021. Since the Ethereum Foundation initiated structural reforms early this year, traditional financial markets' acceptance of ETH has continuously improved. Following the MicroStrategy effect, U.S. listed companies like SharpLink Gaming are also starting to include ETH in their balance sheets as long-term reserves.
Moreover, ETH's core position in on-chain finance naturally gives it the "digital sovereign asset" attribute to counter liquidity tightening and USD fluctuations. Simply put, ETH is no longer just a "crypto platform coin", but is slowly becoming an "on-chain version of government bonds".
Now, "top tokens" in various DeFi fields are starting to stir, including Layer 2 and staking, key links in the Ethereum ecosystem that may benefit from this Ethereum strong performance.
Overall, the crypto market is currently in a transitional period of gradually clarifying regulation and dense policy releases. Fund sentiment remains cautiously observant, but structural positive factors are continuously accumulating. With the Federal Reserve's increasingly flexible attitude, the upcoming "Crypto Week" legislation, and continuous promotion of institutional products like ETFs, the second half of the year may see a key turning point for sentiment recovery and capital inflow. In the short term, it is recommended to focus on the legislative progress of the three crypto bills and changes in net fund flows of mainstream crypto ETFs as important reference indicators for market trend judgment.
The current market still presents a structural pattern of "narrative rotation + mainstream stability", with funds seeking gaming space between narrative-driven and high-volatility assets. Volume anomalies remain an important signal for identifying market launches and structural rotations, especially valuable for trading reference in small and medium-cap assets. If macro and regulatory environments continue to release positive expectations, the market may gradually accumulate momentum in oscillations, laying the foundation for market recovery in the second half of the year.
