After months of underperformance, Ethereum (ETH) led the latest market rally. After reclaiming $2,000 again, several major altcoins soon followed the surge of ETH prices. The recent performance suggests that traders are still taking Ether seriously.
Ethereum was up 7.7% on Wednesday, reaching a daily high of $2,032. The price spike coincided with a 36.40% increase in daily trading volume, reaching $14.02 billion. Following its rally, major altcoins like XRP and Solana followed, seeing 14% and 8% price increases, respectively.
This performance was a combination of several factors, including macroeconomic news. Notably, traders are anticipating the Federal Reserve’s upcoming policy announcement, which has major implications for crypto. While the Fed will likely keep interest rates between 4.25% and 4.50%, traders are anticipating an end to quantitative tightening (QT).
While the Fed has implemented QT to curb rising inflation, the policy also sucked liquidity out of the markets, including crypto. A pause to the policy, which Bank of America predicts, will have a reverse effect, causing crypto assets to rise across the board.
A pause to QT is likely due to several reasons, including ongoing issues with the debt ceiling. Additionally, ongoing concerns over the effects of Donald Trump’s tariff policy are causing concerns in the market. These factors are exerting pressure on the Fed to ease monetary policy.
Whale Accumulation Drives Ethereum Rally
The likely change in monetary policy has prompted institutions to take a more risk-on approach to crypto. In this context, Ethereum stands to benefit, as it is the most well-known crypto asset other than Bitcoin. In case of a greater market upside, the ETH price also has a bigger potential for gains. For this reason, large traders, or whales, have begun accumulating significant amounts of Ethereum.
In 2025, there has been a sharp rise in the number of whale addresses holding Ethereum. Since November last year, addresses holding between 10,000 and 100,000 ETH increased from fewer than 400 to 2,000. According to Nansen, the accumulation continued in 2025, as whale addresses rose a further 12%.
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