Ethereum's coin breaks 2021 all-time high, nearing $600B market cap
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Ether, the cryptocurrency that powers the world's second-most valuable blockchain, Ethereum, has broken its previous all-time high from late 2021.
Why it matters: A turn by institutional investors to ether has given the 10-year-old cryptocurrency new life in the back half of 2025.
By the numbers: Ether peaked at $4,945.60 just after 3 p.m. ET Sunday, per CoinGecko data.
- The old record, of $4,878, had stood since Nov. 2021.
Catch up quick: Ether's price growth has been driven by digital asset treasury companies, ETFs and a dose of old-fashioned bullish sentiment.
- Several companies this summer began to imitate Michael Saylor's company, Strategy, Inc., which has been aggressively buying bitcoin since 2020.
- Some of them have targeted ether, like SharpLink Gaming (SBET), BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) and EthZilla (ETHZ).
- Separately, investors have suddenly begun to take an interest in ether ETFs.
Zoom in: "Sentiment is dramatically improving," James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, tells Axios.
- He pointed to the fact that Ethereum — the blockchain — is likely to continue to the be the main medium for large stablecoin transactions, which should only accelerate after the passage of the GENIUS Act.
- Add to that the fact that Ethereum's economic design typically yields neutral or even negative net issuance of new coins, which keeps supply constrained — even as demand increases.
Flashback: Ethereum, launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin and a team of collaborators, was built as a fully programmable blockchain.
- Its "smart contracts" — self-executing code that runs on the network — were designed to make programmable money a reality.
- Thousands of participants help operate Ethereum's decentralized system, earning ether (ETH), its native cryptocurrency, as payment.
Between the lines: Ethereum operates differently than other internet applications online, in that users pay the network to make computations.
- This makes it well suited for high-value services — such as financial operations — where users need confidence that their interests align with the provider's.
What they're saying: "I do feel Ethereum is infinitely more complex than bitcoin, being a smart contract blockchain," Butterfill said.
- Major investors are only now starting to understand how Ethereum's value proposition differs from Bitcoin's. The latter is a re-imagination of money. Ethereum is a re-imagination of the whole internet.
What we're watching: "I do think there's a lot more potential upside," Butterfill says.
