Ether surpassed $3,800 for the first time since December

Ether has broken above $3,800 for the first time since December 2024, according to data from CoinGecko. The surge puts Ethereum’s market cap over $450 billion, officially locking in its strongest price level in seven months.

This surge comes as momentum builds across altcoins, with the Altcoin Season Index climbing to 47, up from 29 just last week. The combined altcoin market cap now stands at $1.55 trillion.

Over the last seven days, Ethereum has climbed steadily, pushing up to $3,600 before finally pushing past the $3.8K line. That puts the month-on-month gain at 45.48%, a massive push for the second-largest crypto.

Gert Van Lagen, a Dutch analyst who specializes in wave-based market structures, said Ethereum is closing in on the final stage of a long-term bull cycle. “We’re entering the fifth wave,” Gert posted on X on Sunday, “and based on the structure, this wave can carry us to $10,000.”

Ethereum enters final wave of multi-year bull run

Gert’s breakdown leans on Elliott wave theory, which maps out five-wave price cycles shaped by crowd behavior. Based on his bi-weekly chart analysis, Ethereum began this current cycle in 2022 and is now moving through the last of the five waves.

The early part of the cycle included a strong rally (wave one), a correction between 2022 and 2023 (wave two), followed by an extended rise (wave three), and then a slow flat stretch (wave four). Right now, Ethereum is inside wave five, which typically comes with one last aggressive price run before the entire cycle resets.

According to Gert, Ethereum’s latest climb forms “subwave a” of wave five. He expects a minor dip next to retest the breakout level—that would form “subwave b.” After that, the blow-off “subwave c” could push prices well beyond current levels. He sees $10,000 as a realistic endpoint for this entire wave sequence, stretching from 2019 through 2025.

Ether is still the second-largest crypto on earth, sitting only behind Bitcoin, and it currently holds an 11.1% market share. Its market cap now stands at $441.14 billion, just slightly under the $450B peak but still well above its mid-June level.