Ether rises to highest level since January

The immediate catalyst was an on-chain trade flagged by Lookonchain, which said a wallet sold about 1,100 bitcoin worth roughly $87 million on Hyperliquid over five days, bought about 34,400 ether and staked the entire position. That is a meaningful signal because staking removes coins from immediate circulation, reinforcing a supply dynamic that can support price. But it is still only one wallet, and the venue — a platform built around perpetual contracts — leaves open whether the transaction reflected spot accumulation, leveraged positioning or both.

Still, ether’s rise is not happening in a vacuum. Santiment data shows non-empty Ethereum wallets at a record above 207 million, while more than 40 million ETH are staked and about $50 billion is locked in DeFi applications. Those figures point to a network that remains heavily used even as broader markets have been navigating a hawkish backdrop from the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan, a firmer dollar and the Senate failure of the CLARITY Act. For investors, that combination matters because it suggests ether is drawing support from underlying network activity even when policy and macro conditions are not obviously favorable.

Technical indicators are also leaning constructive. Ether has pushed back above its 50-day moving average, with RSI readings in the low-to-mid 60s and MACD still positive, suggesting momentum is improving without yet looking deeply stretched. The latest price is also close to the upper Bollinger Band, which often marks a zone where rallies can pause if fresh buying does not arrive.

The bullish case is straightforward: if more large holders follow the whale into staking, and if ETH/BTC keeps trending higher over several sessions, the rally can widen beyond a single headline trade. The bearish case is just as clear: if no other large wallets join in, ether slips back below the $2,600 area, or bitcoin steadies while ETH cools, the move will look more like a sharp but isolated repositioning than the start of a broader rotation.

What investors should watch now is confirmation, not enthusiasm. A few days of relative strength can be the start of a trend, but it can just as easily be a false break. The next leg will depend on whether staking continues to climb, whether large-wallet rotations become repeatable, and whether ether can keep outperforming bitcoin once the initial whale trade fades from view.