Ethereum ripped nearly 20% higher over a two-day stretch this week, briefly touching $2,312 before settling in the $2,280 to $2,300 range. That move added roughly $47 billion to ETH’s market capitalization in about 48 hours.
The rally marks Ethereum’s most significant single-day percentage gain since May 9, 2025. It also comfortably outpaced Bitcoin, which posted a respectable 10% climb to nearly $70,000 over the same window.
What lit the fuse
First, expanding US Treasury liquidity has been pumping fresh capital into risk assets across the board. Second, favorable regulatory signals have reduced the overhang that kept institutional allocators cautious. Third, ETH balances sitting on exchanges have been falling steadily as tokens migrate into two destinations: Layer-2 networks and staking protocols. Coins locked in staking contracts or bridged to rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism aren’t available for immediate sale. When demand spikes into a thin order book, price discovery gets violent.
The combination of rising demand and shrinking available supply created textbook short-squeeze conditions. Traders who had bet against ETH were forced to cover, accelerating the rally in a feedback loop that pushed prices well past technical resistance levels.
