The Ethereum market has been very active since the Shapella upgrade.
After breaking through the $2,000 zone for the first time in a year, Ether eventually succumbed to outside pressures and retracted back to $1,822 on Monday.
However, on April 26, the World’s second-largest cryptocurrency picked itself back up. $Eth is currently boasting of a near 8% increase over the past 24 hours. The currency’s 24-hour volume also went up by over $6 billion, indicating strong buying pressure on this date.
At this time of writing, Ethereum is only 50 dollars away from re-entering the $2,000 zone. Over the past week, the asset was one of the most affected by fear-selling.
The reason for that is the testimony of SEC Chair Gary Gensler before the American Congress. At the hearing, Gensler reinforced his views that Eth should be classified as a security due to its staking consensus making it function less like a currency.
First Bank Republic Crisis
The most likely reason for this recent surge in the market after a horrible week for cryptocurrencies is likely attached to recent developments involving the potential collapse of the First Republic Bank.
On March 26, First Republic Bank experienced a steep decline of more than 13% in its share value. This significant drop in the stock price occurred merely two days after the regional bank announced a staggering loss of over 40% of its deposits in the first quarter of 2023.
Similar to the recent turmoil with Silicon Valley Bank, some investors turned to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Polygon, and Solana as a potential safeguard against potential risks in the banking sector.
In fact, these cryptocurrencies witnessed a notable increase in value of approximately 9%.
This recent surge in price means that digital currencies will face the upcoming FOMC meeting in a much more comfortable place. It remains to be seen what rate will the Fed put interests in on that date.
