Ethereum’s price just shot up, hitting the $4,000 mark for a brief moment. This sudden climb caught many investors betting on lower prices by surprise. It led to millions of dollars in losses for those who had “shorted” the crypto.
The second-biggest cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), reached $4,000 this morning (ET). It was the first time since December that ETH hit such a high. This strong move on Friday added to ETH’s recent gains. Over the last 30 days, Ether has climbed 50%, according to data from CoinGecko.
Ether has seen strong buying interest in recent weeks. Big companies and institutions are showing more interest. Businesses holding Ether in their treasuries now have over $10 billion. Also, money keeps flowing into Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These factors are pushing the price higher.
US Ether spot ETFs brought in record monthly funds. They pulled in $5.4 billion just in July. This was part of their longest streak of daily inflows yet.
On Friday, investors who had bet against Ether faced a tough time. Data from Coinglass shows about $25 million worth of Ether short positions were closed out. This happened in just 60 minutes. These “short positions” are bets that the price will fall.
The wider cryptocurrency market also saw big losses for short-sellers. About $215.72 million in short positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours. This happened as prices generally went up. Among all digital currencies, ETH led the way in liquidations. It accounted for almost $119 million total. Around $91 million of this came from short positions.
Over the past 24 hours, 105,841 traders lost money in liquidations. The total value of these forced sales was $313.38 million. The single largest liquidation order happened on Binance. It was for $3.29 million, involving the ETH/USDC trading pair.
Market Optimism Grows
Cryptocurrencies are showing signs of bouncing back this Friday. Prices had been falling for several days. Now, a few important events are making investors feel more confident about the long term.
President Donald Trump signing executive orders on digital assets is one reason. Also, the legal fight between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple has formally ended. These two events are big drivers for the current price gains.
Yesterday, Trump signed an order about digital assets in 401(k) plans. This order tells the Labor Department and the SEC to make it easier for these assets to be included. He also signed another order. This one aims to stop “unfair debanking” of crypto companies. These moves could help more people get access to regulated crypto products.
At the same time, the SEC and Ripple agreed to end their court battle. They withdrew their appeals, keeping an earlier court ruling in place. That ruling noted a difference between regular sales and institutional sales of Ripple’s token. This decision removes a big obstacle for Ripple and for crypto policy in the United States.
The XRP token is closely tied to Ripple. It has jumped over 8% in the last 24 hours. Its current price is about $3.3, according to CoinGecko. ETH has come down a bit from its earlier high. It is now around $3,966, still up 4% for the day.
Bitcoin (BTC) is trading near $116,500. This is a small gain of 0.2% from yesterday at the same time. The total value of the cryptocurrency market has gone up by 1.4% in the last 24 hours.
- Ethereum (ETH) briefly touched $4,000 amid a broad market rally.
- The sudden price surge hurt short-sellers, leading to $25 million in liquidations.
- Trump’s crypto orders and the end of the SEC vs. Ripple case are fueling the rise.
- XRP jumped over 8%, while Bitcoin hovered around $116,500.