The crypto bear market may be coming to an end, as Ethereum's price nears $2,000.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has achieved a new seven-month high of over $1,900. The price increase comes less than a week before the Shanghai hard fork.
The upcoming Ethereum Shanghai hard fork, set for April 12th, will introduce EIP-4895, enabling validators and stakers to withdraw their staked ETH from the Beacon Chain. Additionally, the hard fork will implement other EIPs aimed at enhancing transaction speeds and reducing transaction fees.
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From the beginning of the year, the team behind Ethereum was actively working on the development of the Shanghai hard fork. The upgrade went through several testnets, including Zhejiang, Sepolia, and Goerli.
There are many speculations about the reasons behind Ethereum's price surge. Some experts claim that the price surge could be attributed to either expectation of the Fed easing its quantitative tightening efforts as rate hikes impact the global banking sector or increased demand for Ether as staking becomes more adaptable.
It is worth noting that the last time when Ether's price exceeded $1,900 was on August 16th, 2022.
According to TradingView, the ETH/BTC trading pair has increased by nearly 3% in the past week. The data suggest that these factors may be also contributing to Ether's price growth.
However, the changes and upgrades in the Ethereum ecosystem do not always impact the price of Ether (ETH) positively. For example, after the long-awaited Merge, the price of ETH started dropping and regained its previous value a few weeks ago.
At the time of writing, Ether (ETH) retails for $1,916.32, recording a 5.57% increase in the last 24 hours.
