Ethereum Smashes Through $4K Barrier – Stronger Fundamentals Than 2021’s Frenzy

Ethereum just punched through $4,000—revisiting 2021 highs but with a radically upgraded playbook. This isn’t your older brother’s speculative bubble.

Why This Rally Feels Different

No more gas fee horror stories or proof-of-work energy guilt. The Merge’s efficiency gains and Layer 2 scaling solutions are actually being used this time—not just hyped by influencers between NFT drops.

The Institutional Factor

BlackRock’s ETH ETF filing wasn’t just paperwork—it was a bat-signal for traditional finance. Suddenly, pension funds are FOMO-ing harder than a degen ape on launch day. (Cue eye-roll from Bitcoin maximalists.)

The Cynical Kick

Wall Street still can’t decide if crypto is ‘digital gold’ or ‘the future of finance’—but they’ll happily collect fees on both narratives.

One thing’s clear: Ethereum’s ecosystem isn’t just surviving bear markets—it’s building the infrastructure to bulldoze them.

• Ethereum jumps 20% in a week, hitting its highest price in over a year with strong technical support.
• Momentum signals remain bullish, though traders are watching for possible short-term pullbacks.
• The network has transformed since 2021 with major upgrades, ETF inflows, and wider corporate use.

Ethereum has surged to $4,186.70, gaining 20% over the past week and marking its best level in more than a year. The price is well above the 9-week exponential moving average of $3,311, a sign of strong demand. The sharp upward slope of this average points to consistent buying pressure.

The Relative Strength Index sits at 69.58, just shy of the overbought zone. This shows momentum remains strong but also hints that the market could take a breather before pushing higher. The MACD reading of 219.66 against a signal line of 85.71, with widening histogram bars, further confirms buyers are in control.

Ethereum has broken past its April 2024 peak and is testing levels last seen in early 2022. If the price stays above $4,000, the next targets sit between $4,500 and $4,800, with $5,000 in sight. On the downside, support rests at $3,500 and then $3,200 if the market corrects.

A New Ethereum Compared to 2021

Ethereum researcher William Mougayar points out that while Ethereum’s price is where it was in December 2021, the network itself has entirely transformed. At that time, it used Proof-of-Work.

Since Ethereum’s Merge date of September 15, 2022, ethereum has been using Proof-of-Stake, reducing energy consumption by almost 99.95% and causing its supply to frequently become deflationary.

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ETH is back to its Dec 2021 price levels.
But the Ethereum of 2025 is not the Ethereum of 2021.
Same price. Entirely different network.

There have been three main upgrades since that change. Shapella in April 2023 allowed withdrawals of staked ETH. Dencun in March 2024 introduced EIP-4844, which cut LAYER 2 fees by up to 99%.

Pectra in May 2025 introduced smart wallets, social recovery tools, and protections from MEV exploitation. Staking is available to all, and 29-30% of ETH is earning rewards by securing the network.

ETH Hits New Heights with $6.2B ETF Inflows

The debut of U.S. spot Ether ETFs in July 2024 marked a significant event with $1.07 billion in first-day turnover and more than $6.2 billion in inflows during 2025 so far. Even public companies have been adding to their ETH reserves, currently holding 3.04 million ETH totaling $12.82 billion.

Ethereum dominates the stablecoin sector, hosting over $150 billion, more than half the global total. It also leads in tokenized real-world assets, with $6.74 billion in U.S. Treasuries issued on-chain, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL and Franklin’s BENJI MMF.

Value locked in DeFi on rollups today totals over $100 billion as enterprises construct bespoke Layer 2 networks for payments and capital market applications. With a better U.S. regulatory environment in 2025, Ethereum is faster, greener, and more dominant as a network than it was in 2021, yet supported by a much stronger base.

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Booming DeFi & corporate L2s.
$100B+ TVL on rollups today.
Enterprises launching bespoke L2s for payments, capital markets, RWAs.