Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has surged to a new all-time high this week, reaching $2,736 per unit on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. Over the past seven days, ETH has gained 11.48% against the U.S. dollar and approximately 10% against Bitcoin (BTC). Meanwhile, Bitcoin's dominance index has dropped to 49.2%, while Ethereum's share has risen to 14.9%.
Ethereum Price Breaks New Records
While many digital assets suffered declines last week, Ethereum rebounded much faster than most. On April 27, ETH pierced the $2,700 level for the first time, reaching $2,706, before hitting a new peak of $2,736 the following day. Over the past month, ETH is up 48.3% against the USD; over three months, up 102%; and over twelve months, a staggering 1,270.57% gain. Against Bitcoin, ETH has risen 55% in the last 30 days and 22% in the last 90 days. As of this writing, ETH has retreated about 2.55% from its all-time high.
The rally follows Ethereum's "Berlin" hard fork implemented on April 15, which reduced gas fees significantly. Currently, the median fee on Ethereum is around $5.89 per transaction, compared to Bitcoin's $14.31. Lower fees have reinvigorated decentralized finance (DeFi) activity, with total value locked (TVL) in DeFi now standing at a massive $63.2 billion. MakerDAO dominates with 15.83% of that TVL.
Ethereum Settlement Volume Surpasses Bitcoin and PayPal
Although Bitcoin processed $75.1 billion in settlement volume over the past 24 hours, Ethereum's $23.57 billion is catching up. More notably, Ethereum's daily transaction count is far higher: 1.45 million transactions on Ethereum versus 289,613 on Bitcoin. Ethereum is also the leading sidechain for Bitcoin, holding over 201,058 wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) tokens, of which WBTC itself accounts for 156,936.
Twitter user @spencernoon highlighted that PayPal settled $936 billion in payments last year, while Ethereum settled $1.5 trillion in transactions just last quarter — and this figure is growing exponentially. PayPal's market cap is $310 billion, while Ethereum's market cap has now reached approximately $311 billion, meaning ETH has officially overtaken PayPal in market valuation. Ethereum is outperforming Bitcoin on most metrics except hash power: daily active addresses, transaction volume, and the breadth of its DeFi and NFT ecosystem continue to expand.
Market Outlook
With the upcoming EIP-1559 upgrade expected to introduce a fee-burning mechanism, ETH's supply growth could become negative, enhancing its store-of-value narrative. Analysts increasingly view Ethereum as transitioning from a pure cryptocurrency to a global settlement layer capable of supporting decentralized applications, stablecoins, and tokenized assets. As Ethereum's network effects strengthen, its dominance over Bitcoin may continue to grow.
What do you think about Ethereum's new all-time high and its potential to surpass Bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments below.