Ethereum (ETH), the leading altcoin, topped the $3,300 level for the first time since Feb. 1 earlier today on the Bitstamp exchange.
The top cryptocurrency reached an intraday peak of $3,371, surging by 7%.
The altcoin has substantially outperformed Bitcoin over the past two days, with the ETH/BTC pair soaring by a whopping 15%. The pair has now surpassed 0.028 BTC, which is the highest level since February.
According to Lookonchain, a major whale recently closed all ETH shorts before being liquidated, losing a whopping $8.4 million in a single day.
Overall, more than $56 million of ETH shorts have been wiped out over the past four hours, CoinGlass data shows.
Record-breaking holder numbers
Analytics platform Santiment has noted that Ethereum holder numbers are currently "breaking records." The network boasts more than 152 million in non-empty wallets.
Corporate and institutional adoption
The Ethereum corporate adoption narrative is also gaining steam, with publicly traded company SharpLink recently emerging as the top corporate holder of the altcoin with more than 280,000 tokens accumulated over a relatively short span of time.
Spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds continue to attract steady inflows, with BlackRock's ETHA attracting as much as $171 million worth of fresh funds on Tuesday, according to SoSoValue data.
Positive macro data
The most recent rally was also fueled by the June Producer Price Index (PPI) coming in cooler than expected. The data means that the Federal Reserve is now more likely to cut interest rates.
It is worth noting that all of the top 10 cryptocurrencies are currently in the green, but ETH has vastly outperformed them.
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team