As ETH Breaks Above $4,900, Analyst Sums Up Crypto Market: ‘BTC Is Exhausted, ETH Isn’t’
Ether cleared $4,900 on Coinbase at 5:40 p.m. UTC on Sunday, entering price discovery; analysts are split between supply-shock upside and a Monday pullback.
Updated Aug 25, 2025, 2:03 p.m. Published Aug 24, 2025, 7:36 p.m.
Ether (ETH) pushed into uncharted territory Sunday, clearing $4,900 on Coinbase at 5:40 p.m. UTC and surpassing its prior record of $4,867 set on Nov. 8, 2021.
The five-year ETH-USD price chart from TradingView shows a clean, multi-year breakout: ETH has finally vaulted the 2021 high after a long consolidation, leaving no historical overhead levels to lean on.
This is what traders call price discovery — the market is printing new highs with only psychology and order flow to guide it rather than prior chart resistance.
The 5-day view fills in the tape action. After a fast run from the mid-$4,700s, ETH pushed through $4,900 and reached an intraday high around $4,946.90. At the time of the chart snapshot — 6:48 p.m. UTC — the last price was about $4,941.57. That sequence signals buyers absorbed supply near the old ceiling and then forced a fresh high, a classic breakout pattern.
Analyst Miles Deutsher summed up the leadership shift as “BTC is exhausted, ETH isn’t.” In plain English, he is flagging relative momentum: bitcoin’s rallies have stalled near recent highs while ether just broke into price discovery.
When a market says one asset is “exhausted,” it usually means upside attempts are fading, follow-through is weak, and sellers keep meeting pushes higher; “isn’t” means the opposite — stronger follow-through, fresh highs, and active dip-buying. Traders often rotate toward the asset showing higher relative strength when the other leader tires.
Crypto Rover focused on supply on exchanges. “Exchange reserves” refers to coins held in wallets controlled by centralized trading venues.
When those balances trend down, fewer coins are immediately available to sell. If demand rises as liquid supply thins, price can accelerate because buyers must bid higher to coax coins off-exchange back into circulation. That is the mechanic behind his “supply shock” phrasing — not a guarantee of straight-up prices, but a setup where scarcity can magnify moves once momentum starts.
Michaël van de Poppe offered a risk check. He highlighted the unusually large weekly candle and cautioned that weekend breakouts often retrace when liquidity normalizes early in the week.
The idea is simple: weekend order books can be thinner, so moves extend more easily; when fuller participation returns on Monday, prices sometimes retest the breakout area to confirm it as support before trending again. In practice, that means a pullback toward the breakout zone would not, by itself, negate the larger bullish break you see on the 5-year chart.
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
Siamak Masnavi
Siamak Masnavi is a researcher focused on blockchain technology, cryptocurrency regulation and macroeconomic forces shaping digital assets — including interest rate policy, capital flows and adoption trends. He holds an MSc and PhD in computer science from the University of London and began his career in software development, with nearly four years in the banking sector in London and Zurich. Since April 2018, he has been writing about the crypto industry. His focus shifted primarily to research in November 2024, though he continues to contribute regularly to industry reporting.
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