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– ETH has long been no stranger to volatility. As early as its first few weeksaround August 2015it experienced several 50% swings in both directions, since Ethereum was still relatively unknown outside of a small circle of dedicated cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

These days, now that Ethereum has carved out its niche, weve certainly started to see more price movements driven by specific catalysts. For example, the DeFi boom and NFT fever in May 2021 propelled ETH to its first surge to $4,300, and the launch of the Pectra update four years later triggered a 21% one-day rally.

However, people have recently been joking that ETH is a true stablecoin. In 2026, it mostly fluctuated without significant spikes within the $1,800$2,000 range, which essentially corresponds to the same range it was in during the summer of 2021. In other words, ETH has often lagged behind other coins lately.

That is precisely why yesterdays 20% surge in ETH on August 19 seemed like a return to formor, at the very least, a restoration of its reputation. Not only was this one of ETHs biggest single-day gains in recent history, but it was also an instance where ETH, contrary to the norm, outperformed nearly all coins in the top 100 that day in terms of returns.

When was the last time you saw ETH post a daily candle with a 20% gain?

May 8, 2025 opened at 1,811, closed at 2,207.

What happened next?

A 125% rise over the next 3 months.

And dont forget about the ETH-related coins that rose alongside it.

We havent seen anything like this in a long time. However, as weve seen before, this rally had significant catalysts, including yesterdays crypto summit at the White House, where President Trump called for the passage of the Clarity Act and (once again) stated that the U.S. is considering acquiring reserves of BTC and other cryptocurrencies (which, if true, would likely include ETH as well).

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These statements, combined with the expansion of the Treasury bond buyback program and the inflow of funds into spot ETH ETFs, led to the appearance of ‘green’ candles, which, in turn, triggered a massive ‘short squeeze,’ which resulted in the liquidation of short positions in ETH estimated at around $1 billion.

As these short positions were liquidated, traders were forced to buy ETH to close out their positions, and this forced covering intensified buying pressure, generating even more green candles.

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Of course, even though the day of massive gains was very welcome for ETH holders after a long lull, I think its fair to say that ETH still seems undervalued compared to Bitcoin and, overall, relative to Ethereums fundamentals.

Indeed, BTCs market capitalization today ($1.45 trillion) is roughly five times that of ETH ($281 billion), but does it offer five times more utility or potential? Absolutely not, and in my opinion, it never has.

Among all cryptocurrencies, Ethereum currently boasts the most powerful smart contract architecture. The largest developer community and the broadest set of development tools. The largest DeFi ecosystem, the largest NFT ecosystem. The largest number of applications, the highest liquidity, the largest number of stablecoins, the largest number of tokenized real-world assets, and the most experiments in the traditional finance (TradFi) sector.

The price of ETH may have struggled recently, but at the same time, its fundamentals and capabilities have quietly surpassed those of its peers, cementing its position as the best in its class in nearly every significant category. Ethereum today is a giantone that no one would have believed could emerge so quickly 10 years ago.

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