Ethereum on the rise, as Bitcoin consolidates

Ethereum is fast approaching $200, as the number two cryptocurrency saw gains of over 7% in the last three days, to reach its current price of just under $194.

After the asset broke through its $180 resistance thanks to a 4% price rally last Friday—Ethereum continued its momentum by gaining another 3% in the last 24 hours.

A factor in the decentralized asset's recent uptick in price has been the positive remarks shared by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin—at this past weekend's Ethereal conference in Tel Aviv.

At the conference that was covered by Decrypt, the 25-year-old told the audience about Ethereum's strong progress in privacy, DeFi (decentralized finance) and the network's eventual move to a proof of stake consensus algorithm—dubbed Ethereum 2.0.

In comparison to Ethereum's 7.5% rise, Bitcoin registered modest weekly gains of only 1%—as the number one cryptocurrency by market cap found support above its critical $10,000 valuation.

Market cap dominance for Bitcoin also fell to 68.5%—after breaking above 70% for the first time in two years at the start of September.

With Ethereum now back above a $21 billion market cap—with strong trading volumes of more than $7 billion a day—its looks to be potentially leading the recent fightback in crypto markets.

With Bitcoin itself on the apex of a mammoth 5-month, symmetrical triangle—the recent breakout for the second-largest cryptocurrency could well be a sign of things to come for Bitcoin, and the crypto market overall.