Ethereum’s Price Surges Past $2,600 For First Time In 8 Months: Outruns Bitcoin, XRP, Solana

About $665 million in crypto positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, including roughly $400 million in short positions.

• Ethereum accounted for about $250 million of total crypto market liquidations, compared with roughly $170 million for Bitcoin.
• Crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe said “the correction is over” and forecast that Bitcoin is about to set new highs.
• The rally come after CPI rose 0.3% month over month in August, above the 0.2% estimate.

Ethereum (ETH) surged on Friday morning, crossing $2,600 for the first time since January and leading the broader rebound in major cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum’s price jumped more than 8% in the last 24 hours to touch $2,660, according to Coinbase data. Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), chaired by Lee, also jumped amid Ethereum’s rally. BMNR stock rose more than 9% in morning trade.

Both Ethereum and BMNR were among the top trending tickers on Stocktwits at the time of writing. However, retail sentiment around both assets remained in the ‘bearish’ zone over the past day. 

Ethereum Outperforms Bitcoin

Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL) and Ripple’s (XRP) token also gained in the last 24 hours, but Ethereum was well ahead of its crypto peers on the day. Bitcoin’s price rose around 2.7%, while Solana’s price gained 5.3% and XRP’s price climbed 4.2%. 

The rally pushed ETH above $2,600 for the first time in more than seven months, extending a sharp recovery from recent weakness. 

The sharp move higher also triggered a wave of liquidations across the crypto market. About $665 million in crypto positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, including roughly $400 million in short positions. Ethereum accounted for about $250 million of the liquidations, more than Bitcoin’s roughly $170 million.

According to crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe, even though Bitcoin did not outperform, “the correction is over.” In a post on X, the MNFund founder forecast that Bitcoin is about to set new highs. 

Tom Lee Says Fed Had Become ‘Overly Hawkish’

In a ‘Macro Minute’ note on Thursday, Fundstrat and BMNR chairman Tom Lee said he expected a benign August core CPI reading and argued that the setup “likely leads to a ‘face ripper’ rally in the next week or so.”

According to him, investors, economists and the Fed had become “overly hawkish,” leaving sentiment sufficiently bearish for a less concerning inflation reading to trigger a disproportionately large move higher.

However, the rally came despite a hotter core CPI reading. Core CPI rose 0.3% in August, above the 0.2% consensus estimate, while annual core CPI matched expectations at 2.4%. Headline CPI rose 0.4% from July and 3.4% from a year earlier, both in line with estimates. 

The report pushed market expectations for a Federal Reserve rate hike higher, with the CME FedWatch tool showing an 88% probability.

The overall cryptocurrency market moved 1.1% in the last 24 hours to around $2.75 trillion. 

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