Can Ethereum turn Friday’s price rally of 6.5% into a sustained breakout?

Ethereum [ETH] surged by 6.5% in the last 24 hours to trade at $2,618.67 at press time. This is a level the altcoin last saw back in January 2026. The timing here is interesting since the global cryptocurrency market cap also climbed to $2.88 trillion following gains of 4.6%. 

What is also interesting is that the said recovery followed several developments that would normally put significant pressure on risk assets.

For context, over the past week, the CLARITY Act failed to advance in the Senate and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points. Additionally, the Bank of Japan also raised rates while the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) moved back above 100 and and oil prices increased.

Not just a price playdate

And yetm Ethereum saw a surge in whale transactions. This, and its holder base, continued to expand, with a record 207.17 million non-empty wallets. Staking is another major factor that has supported long-term ETH demand.

With more than 40 million ETH currently staked, there has been a significant removal of ETH from immediately available market supply. 

At the same time, Ethereum has remained a major hub for decentralized finance (DeFi), securing roughly $50 billion in TVL across lending platforms, decentralized exchanges, stablecoin applications and liquid-staking protocols. 

Finally, ETH ETFs also flipped the three-day outflow streak with $143.7 million in inflows. 

Other altcoins also surfed the bullish momentum

Needless to say, besides Ethereum, Bitcoin [BTC] moved back above $80,000, while several major altcoins recorded more significant gains.

For instance, Solana [SOL] and Hyperliquid [HYPE] hiked by more than 10% and Uniswap [UNI] gained by around 16%.

Is there still some uncertainty around?

However, not everything may be as rosy as it seems. The Ethereum Foundation transferred approximately $2.45 million worth of ETH to an unlabeled Gnosis Safe, a type of smart contract wallet commonly used for managing funds collectively or securely.

Now, because the receiving wallet is unlabeled, it is not yet clear whether it is directly controlled by the Ethereum Foundation or belongs to another entity.

The transfer, therefore, does not necessarily mean that the foundation is selling ETH or reducing its holdings. This, because on-chain data reportedly shows that the Foundation still holds around $235.46 million worth of ETH and $23 million in USDC.

Final Summary

• Ethereum’s recent gains were recorded despite several negative developments that would have impacted its bullish momentum.
• Besides ETH and BTC, several altcoins saw massive surges, with some seeing weekly hikes of over 45%.