Ethereum (ETH) has posted a fresh all-time high this week, reaching $2,736 per coin on April 28. After breaking above $2,706 on Tuesday, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap continued its upward momentum. Despite a slight pullback of 2.55% from the peak, ETH has gained 11.48% over the past seven days, 48.3% over the past month, and an astonishing 1,270.57% year-over-year. Against Bitcoin (BTC), ETH has also strengthened, climbing 10% in the past week and 55% in the past 30 days.
Bitcoin Dominance Eroding as Ethereum Gains Ground
Ethereum's rally has come at the expense of Bitcoin's market dominance, which has fallen to 49.2%, while ETH's share has risen to 14.9%. The shift indicates growing investor interest in Ethereum's ecosystem, including decentralized finance (DeFi) and tokenization. On-chain data shows that Ethereum processed 1.45 million transactions in 24 hours, dwarfing Bitcoin's 289,613. However, BTC still leads in total settled value ($75.1B vs. $23.57B in the past 24 hours), but Ethereum's median transaction fee ($5.89) is significantly lower than Bitcoin's ($14.31).
Berlin Upgrade Fuels DeFi Activity, TVL Hits $63.2 Billion
Ethereum's successful 'Berlin' hard fork on April 15 has reduced gas fees substantially, spurring a surge in DeFi activity. Total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols now stands at $63.2 billion, with Maker dominating at 15.83%. Lower fees have encouraged more users to participate in lending, borrowing, and liquidity provision, further strengthening the network's utility.
Ethereum Becomes Bitcoin's Top Sidechain, Settlement Outpaces PayPal
Ethereum now hosts the highest amount of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) – 156,936 out of a total of 201,058 tokens – making it Bitcoin's primary sidechain. In a broader context, Ethereum's settlement volume has already surpassed that of traditional payment giant PayPal. According to analyst @spencernoon, PayPal settled $936 billion in payments in 2020, while Ethereum settled $1.5 trillion in just the first quarter of 2021. With a market cap of approximately $311 billion, Ethereum is now comparable to PayPal's $310 billion market capitalization.