Ethereum (ETH) touched $3,000 for the first time since April 2022, just before the entire crypto market entered a brutal bear market.
The price of ETH stands at $3,000, according to CoinMarketCap data, representing a more than 3.4% 24-hour rise. Over the past week, it has risen by 13%.
The last time the second-largest cryptocurrency stood at the $3,000 mark was nearly 22 months ago. One month later, the crypto project Terra collapsed, bringing the price of every digital coin and token with it. ETH has struggled to recover since then.
Ethereum Staking Booms, With 25% of All ETH Locked Up
A quarter of all Ethereum (ETH) in supply is now being staked, data shows. According to figures from blockchain data firm Nansen, over 30 million ETH—or about $74 billion worth of the cryptocurrency—has been locked up. Staking is the process of “locking up” digital coins or tokens to help keep a blockchain network running. Proof-of-stake assets like ETH require users to pledge their coins to the network by sending it to a specific blockchain address. Those who stake earn token rewards in the pr...
A lot is now happening in the Ethereum world today, however, and there is more interest in the asset than before. A number of high-profile Wall Street fund managers have proposed spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
If approved, traditional investors would have access to ETH in a safe and regulated way. The likes of BlackRock, Grayscale, and VanEck are hoping to get the green light from the regulator.
Last month, British multinational bank Standard Chartered projected that a spot ETH ETF will likely get approved by May—and then it'll only go up in price.
ETH's network is also about to undergo a vital upgrade, dubbed "Dencun." The improvement will bring "proto-danksharding" to the blockchain, promising to make it faster and cheaper to use.
ETH is still well below its November 2021 all-time high of $4,878.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
