As ETH Breaks Above $4,900, Analyst Sums Up Crypto Market: ‘BTC Is Exhausted, ETH Isn’t’
Ether cleared $4,900 on Coinbase at 5:40 p.m. UTC on Sunday, entering price discovery; analysts are split between supply-shock upside and a Monday pullback.
- Ether surged above $4,900 for the first time, entering price discovery with a new all-time high at $4,946.
- Analysts highlight weakening momentum in bitcoin while ether demand grows amid shrinking exchange reserves.
- Some warn weekend breakouts often retrace, suggesting a short-term pullback early in the week.
Ether (ETH) pushed into uncharted territory Sunday, clearing $4,900 on Coinbase at 5:40 p.m. UTC and surpassing its prior record of $4,867 set on Nov. 8, 2021.
The five-year ETH-USD price chart from TradingView shows a clean, multi-year breakout: ETH has finally vaulted the 2021 high after a long consolidation, leaving no historical overhead levels to lean on.
This is what traders call price discovery — the market is printing new highs with only psychology and order flow to guide it rather than prior chart resistance.
The 5-day view fills in the tape action. After a fast run from the mid-$4,700s, ETH pushed through $4,900 and reached an intraday high around $4,946.90. At the time of the chart snapshot — 6:48 p.m. UTC — the last price was about $4,941.57. That sequence signals buyers absorbed supply near the old ceiling and then forced a fresh high, a classic breakout pattern.
When a market says one asset is “exhausted,” it usually means upside attempts are fading, follow-through is weak, and sellers keep meeting pushes higher; “isn’t” means the opposite — stronger follow-through, fresh highs, and active dip-buying. Traders often rotate toward the asset showing higher relative strength when the other leader tires.
The idea is simple: weekend order books can be thinner, so moves extend more easily; when fuller participation returns on Monday, prices sometimes retest the breakout area to confirm it as support before trending again. In practice, that means a pullback toward the breakout zone would not, by itself, negate the larger bullish break you see on the 5-year chart.