Crypto: Ethereum leaps by 15 % after the words of Jerome Powell

While traditional markets are looking for a new breath, Ethereum confirms its central role in the digital financial ecosystem. This Friday, ETH crossed a historic threshold at 4,880 dollars, exceeding its 2021 record. This symbolic peak is in a global rally of the Crypto market, carried by a more accommodating tone of the Fed and a renewed interest of institutional investors. The event marks a strategic turning point for Ethereum, now perceived no longer as a simple speculative asset, but as a pillar of the financial infrastructure to come.

A rally powered by the markets and signals of the Fed

This Friday, August 22, Ether (ETH) briefly reached 4,880 dollars, signing a new historic record, exceeding for the first time since November 2021 the threshold of its previous ATH at $ 4,878.26.

This Haussier movement is part of a general dynamic of recovery on the crypto market, initiated by a major signal: the words made by Jerome Powell, president of the American federal reserve.

The latter suggested that the Fed could soon initiate a drop in interest rates, causing a renewed appetite for risky assets. Thus, the cryptos market as a whole has recovered, and the price of the ETH increased by more than 15 % on Friday day alone. Since the beginning of the year, the Ether has been up of +40 %, surpassing Bitcoin's performance.

However, beyond the macroeconomic situation, several structural elements linked to capital flows have also contributed to propeling Ether to new heights:

• The approval of ETHEREUM ETHEREUM in cash by the SEC in July 2024, facilitating direct access to the market for institutional investors;

• Outstanding that now exceeds $ 20 billion, with Blackrock Etha at the top of the most capitalized products.

This rise in traditional capital marks a turning point in the institutional perception of Ethereum. For Nate Geraci, president of Novadius Wealth Management, this dynamic is explained by a change of prism: “I have the impression that the ETF Spot on the ETH were largely underestimated, simply because the investors of traditional finance did not really understand Ethereum”he wrote on the social network X.

In addition, he adds that: “Now they hear that Ethereum is presented as the spine of the financial markets of the future, and this speech begins to echo”. It is a late awareness, but now well rooted in wallets.

These elements have contributed to repositioning Ethereum no longer as a powerful Altcoin, but as a central asset in the digital financial ecosystem in full reconfiguration.

A changing technological infrastructure and a long -term vision

If the market has ignited for Ethereum, it is also because the blockchain is experiencing an in -depth evolution technologically. The Pectra update, deployed in May 2025, although perceived as neutral in terms of immediate impact on the price, helped restore confidence.

“The Pectra update did not contain an element theoretically favorable to the price of the Eth”, recall Luke Nolan, senior analyst at Coinshares.

However, the feeling was so negative at the time that it was enough for an improvement, even a minor, to reverse the dynamics. This update has improved the efficiency of stuking, optimized the user experience, facilitated the management of validators and strengthened the scalability of Layers 2, major advances for a network designed to carry billions of crypto transactions.

In addition, it is above all the perception of Ethereum as a base of a new economic architecture which feeds long -term interest. Joe Lubin, founder of consensys, explain that “Ethereum has the ability to secure and verify all transactions, whether initiated by humans or AI agents”. He also specifies that “The majority of future transactions will fall under this last category”.

Same story on the side of Paul Brody, Blockchain director at Ey, who sees In Ethereum “Fundamental plumbing not only of finance, but of the entire term trade”. These prospects, which were once relegated to the margins of the ecosystem, now find an increasing echo among major financial players.

This rise in power triggers multiple implications. From a strategic point of view, Ethereum seems to come out of the shadow of Bitcoin by affirming a complementary positioning, but more technological than monetary. From a macroeconomic point of view, the network could become a coordination vector for decentralized or even automated financial and commercial systems.

On a market scale, this new legitimacy could strengthen the current tendency of institutional accumulation, in particular through corporate cash, as evidenced by Bitmine, the first ETH holder among listed companies. If this dynamic is confirmed, the symbolic threshold of $ 5,000 may be only a step towards a new phase of structural growth.