Ethereum (ETH) soared to an 11-month high this morning in what is shaping up to be an exceptionally strong rally for the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, much to the surprise of anyone expecting a post-Shanghai upgrade dip.
ETH has a history of acting bearishly after major network upgrades; it’s what happened last September when the long-delayed Merge finally occurred.
Plus, fears of large-scale selling pressure, when the Shanghai upgrade allowed some US$33bn worth of ETH to potentially be sold on the open market, was apparently going to gut the spot price.
That certainly hasn’t happened, at least for the short term, with ETH/USDT adding 5% on Thursday and another 5.3% this morning to push the pair as high as US$2,130.
Ether on a tear – Source: currency.com
Short liquidations on the futures market clocked in at a whopping US$93mln in the past 24 hours as a result.
Bulls will be eyeing up a move above US$2,200 where the biggest sell wall is located, per Binance’s order book.
Bitcoin, though not as strong as ether in the short term, is still in a good position having flirted with 31k in this morning’s Asia trading window, marking nine-month highs on the BTC/USDT pair.
Bitcoin hits nine-month highs – Source: currency.com
There was some uncertainty among bitcoin traders after the mixed US inflation read on Tuesday, with investors in risk assets weighing up whether the slightly better-than-expected year-on-year drop to 5% was enough to support a risk-on rally.
For now, bitcoin appears to be in a bullish phase, though ETH is undoubtedly stronger, with the ETH/BTC pair adding 9.5% over the past three days.
DOGE wags tail
Recent news of Twitter’s partnership with eToro to bring crypto and equities trading to the bird has caused another surge in the Dogecoin (DOGE) meme coin.
The feature will provide Twitter users searching for ‘$Cashtags’ such as $TSLA or $BTC with real-time prices for cryptocurrencies, stocks and other assets, and direct them to the eToro platform to invest in them.
Musk is a long-time Dogecoin stan, so naturally the DOGE Army is speculating on a further integration between the meme coin and Twitter.
DOGE is something of a proxy for Twitter these days, so the eToro news sent DOGE/USDT around 9% high week on week.
Solana heats up
But the strongest week-on-week performer among the altcoin blue chips is clearly SOL, native coin of the Solana blockchain network.
SOL is currently around 24% higher on the week, with a market capitalisation approaching US$10bn, encouraged by the pending launch of Solana-powered, crypto-forward smartphone ‘Saga’.
The Android-based Solana Mobile will cost US$1,000 and is built in partnership with OSOM. Pre-orders are currently being taken.
Other top movers in the altcoin space include Cardano (ADA), adding 16% week on week, newly launched Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum (ARB), adding over 27% and Optimism (OP), another Ethereum scaling solution, adding 17%.
Global crypto market cap added 4.5% to US$1.29tn overnight, while total value locked in the decentralised finance space added 5% to US$53.8bn.
