Ethereum Back Above $2,000 as Market Rally Continues 

Ethereum has hit $2,000 for the second time in its history.

Ethereum’s Price Rally 

After a week of green candles for Ethereum, the second-ranked cryptocurrency is trading back above $2,000. 

ETH first crossed $2,000 on Feb. 20 after weeks of upward movement. The high didn’t last long, though: it was trading just above $1,300 by the end of the month.

Demand for the asset has increased in recent weeks as the crypto bull run picks up steam. It’s up 26% in the last week, while Bitcoin has also seen a sharp rise. 

Bitcoin and Ethereum often follow each other in price performance. But this week, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin. The ratio between the two assets is currently 0.033. 

Other than the market’s excitable state, one likely reason for the rise is the imminent implementation of EIP-1559.

The proposal will bring in a fundamental change to Ethereum’s monetary policy, introducing a gas fee burn on every transaction. It means that ETH will become deflationary if the network sees enough activity, which has led some Ethereum fans to refer to the currency as “ultra sound money.” EIP-1559 is going live in the blockchain’s London hardfork, scheduled for this July. 

Visa announcing on Monday that it would settle USDC transactions on Ethereum has also helped propel ETH across $2,000. The payments firm wrote:

“One small step forward for Visa’s settlement platform, one giant step forward for the integration of digital and traditional fiat currencies.”

Ethereum’s market cap is now roughly $230.8 billion, according to CoinGecko. That’s about 11.75% of the whole cryptocurrency market. 

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.