Ethereum also reached a new year-to-date high of $4,093.92. This rise allowed the market value of Ethereum to once surpass Walmart, the world's largest retailer, and become the 19th largest asset in the world. Behind this feat, what potential positive factors are driving the rise in the price of Ethereum?
Bitcoin soared to a new high of $72,800 in the early morning of today (12th). At the same time, Ethereum also set a new high this year, once touching $4093.92. It was temporarily trading at $4062.79 at the time of writing, up nearly 5% in the past 24 hours.
Ethereum overtakes Walmart as the 19th largest asset
Driven by this, Ethereum's market value exceeded US$485 billion, successfully edging out Walmart, the world's largest retailer, and becoming the 19th largest asset in the world, leaving behind companies such as SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, LVMH, and iShares Core S&P 500..
Apart from the rise in the overall crypto market driven by Bitcoin, what are the other potential benefits of Ethereum's recent surge? The following moving areas summarize several potential key catalysts for readers.
Advantage 1: Dencun will start upgrading tomorrow
The Ethereum Dencun upgrade will be activated on the mainnet at 21:55 on March 13, 2024, Taiwan time. The market expects this upgrade to be a major boost to the rise of Ethereum and Layer 2 projects.
The core of the Cancun upgrade is EIP-4844, also known as "proto-danksharding". It is the first step to achieve Ethereum expansion. It introduces a new transaction type (blob carrying transaction). EIP-4844 expands the blockchain by providing more space for data "blobs", enabling temporary storage and search of off-chain data through Ethereum nodes, thereby reducing transaction fees on the Layer 2 network.
According to IntoTheBlock data, for transactions on DEX, the estimated handling fees before and after the Dencun upgrade will be adjusted as follows:
Aribitrum’s gas fee will be reduced from $2.02 to $0.4;
Optimism will be reduced from $1.42 to $0.28;
Base will be reduced from $0.58 to $0.01.
The significant reduction in handling fees will help the overall explosion of applications on L2, and this trend has actually begun to appear. According to L2BEAT data, the current total locked-up volume (TVL) of Ethereum Layer 2 has climbed to US$39.63 billion, continuing to set new highs, with a 7-day increase of 15.42%.
Good news: Ethereum spot ETF may be approved in May
After the adoption of the Bitcoin spot ETF, it has attracted a cumulative capital inflow of nearly 9.6 billion US dollars, which has had a significant positive impact on the price of Bitcoin. Therefore, the market’s optimistic expectations for the Ethereum spot ETF to obtain SEC approval for listing have also become ETH A big catalyst for the rise.
While some experts have mixed opinions on whether the Ethereum spot ETF will pass in May, Wu said blockchain founder Colin Wu put it in a different light:
If Trump is elected president at the end of the year, you said that Gensler has been fired. Do you want to work on Wall Street to get a high salary and enjoy the enjoyment..., ETH ETF in May, does he want to give some face to the Wall Street bosses? As long as the public opinion is not too bad, this face must be given.
Colin Wu emphasized that in a democratic society, public opinion is the key. There seems to be no problem with Ethereum’s public opinion at present, and pointed out that Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, as a Russian, supports Ukraine in Russia and Ukraine. In the eyes of the United States, this is a negative impact on Ethereum. This is a plus for the image of the square.
Positive 3: Anticipation of a recurrence of the currency market cycle
Crypto market veterans often talk about the cyclical pattern of the market, arguing that Bitcoin tends to rise first, followed by Ethereum and other major tokens, eventually turning into a violent rise in smaller tokens, marking the so-called alt season. ) is coming.
At present, Bitcoin’s market dominance remains solid, accounting for 53.7% of the market value. Based on this current situation, investors may plan for the next possible rising cycle in advance, especially for other major tokens such as Ethereum, thereby promoting further rises in the price of Ethereum.
