Ethereum Starts to Climb After Touching All-Time Low
Ethereum jumped almost 15% in the past 24 hours to trade around $1,800, extending a 30 per cent rebound from its 9 April trough near $1,400. The surge eclipsed Bitcoin’s 6 per cent gain and helped push the total value of all cryptocurrencies back above the symbolic $3 trillion mark.
Dominance nudges up after dipping below 7%
Ethereum’s share of the overall crypto market had slipped to 7 per cent on 22 April, matching levels last seen in September 2019. TradingView data show the ratio has since clawed back to about 7.5 per cent, easing concerns that alternative smart-contract platforms would permanently erode Ether’s leadership in decentralised-finance liquidity.
Analysts point to a combination of technical and macro catalysts. At the macro level, traders welcomed signs that President Trump may temper tariff threats against China, a development that lifted risk assets broadly; Reuters recorded a concurrent 6 per cent rise in Ether as the dollar cooled from an early spike.
Network fundamentals improve ahead of the next hard fork
Developers are finalising the so-called Pectra upgrade, expected later this year, which will bundle proto-danksharding extensions and further execution-layer tweaks aimed at lowering fees and speeding withdrawals. Although no fixed date has been set, the prospect of additional scaling helped stabilise sentiment after a bruising start to 2025 that left Ether down more than 50 per cent year-to-date. Staking yields have increased to 2.5 per cent, offering long-only holders a modest cushion against price volatility.
Despite the bounce, Ethereum continues to lag Bitcoin, whose dominance remains near a four-year high above 60 per cent. The ETH/BTC pair trades at 0.018, its weakest level since 2019, underscoring lingering caution among institutional allocators. Options data from Deribit show one-month at-the-money implied volatility on Ether is still five points above Bitcoin, suggesting traders expect larger percentage swings to persist.
Conclusion
Ethereum’s swift recovery from an all-time low in market dominance signals that reports of its demise were premature. Yet the network must convert technical road-maps and renewed developer enthusiasm into sustained user growth to avoid slipping back below the seven-per-cent line. Investors now weigh the tailwind of an oversold bounce and upcoming protocol improvements against continued competition from Bitcoin and fast-growing layer-one rivals. Whether the latest rally marks a durable turning point will depend on macro risk appetite, the pace of on-chain activity and the community’s ability to deliver the next upgrade on schedule.
