Ethereum could surprise haters, Arthur Hayes bets big on ETH 

• Ethereum is hovering close to support at $2,400, and on-chain indicators support a bearish sentiment.
• Arthur Hayes of BitMEX is bullish on Ethereum and says ETH could outperform Solana in the next year and a half. 
• Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon says ETH could be the platform of choice for institutions; future upgrades focus on stability.  
• Ethereum’s performance against Bitcoin likely signals a turning point for crypto, with ETH entering an extreme undervaluation zone. 

Ethereum (ETH) trades close to key support at $2,400 on Monday. The largest altcoin’s on-chain indicators currently support a bearish thesis for Ether, as seen on IntoTheBlock. 

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, told Fortune Crypto in an interview that he is bullish on Ether and the altcoin could beat Solana in 2025. In their thesis, analysts at CryptoQuant suggest a turning point for Ethereum as the altcoin enters the undervaluation zone. 

Ethereum price analysis

Ethereum’s technical indicators on the daily timeframe show mixed signals. Key momentum indicators, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) reads 65 and generates a sell signal as ETH slips under 70 or the “overbought” zone. Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) flashes green histogram bars above the neutral line, signaling an underlying bullish momentum in Ether. 

ETH is close to its resistance at $2,746, the 50% Fibonacci retracement of the decline from the December 2024 peak of $4,107 to the April 10 low of $1,385. The altcoin could find support at $2,226, the upper boundary of a Fair Value Gap (FVG) on the daily price chart. 

The weekly price chart supports a bullish thesis for ETH. RSI is above 50 and MACD shows green histogram bars, signaling underlying positive momentum in the Ethereum price trend. 

Two key resistances for Ether to test on the weekly timeframe are $2,605 and $2,921, close to the psychologically important $3,000 level. The two resistances represent the upper/lower boundaries of FVGs on the weekly timeframe. 

Ethereum could find support at $2,323 or $1,873 in the event of a correction. 

ETH/USDT daily and weekly price charts

Arthur Hayes says Ethereum could beat Solana

In an interview with Fortune Crypto at Token2049 in Dubai, Hayes told the reporter that he thinks Ethereum has a better performance outlook than Solana. Hayes explains:

“...mostly because it’s very hated, everyone thinks Ethereum does nothing, they haven’t done anything correctly, but it still has the most TVL, it still has the most number of developers and it still is the most secure proof of stake blockchain. Yeah, the price hasn’t done that well from 2020 to the current moment.”

Hayes acknowledges that Solana’s price performance was better than Ethereum, as SOL rallied from $7 to $172. However, the BitMEX co-founder believes that Ethereum could outperform Solana for the next 18 to 24 months of the bull run. 

Ethereum core developer says ETH will ship more, attract institutions

Preston Van Loon, co-founder and Ethereum protocol developer at Prysmatic Labs, told FXStreet in an exclusive interview that after the most recent Pectra upgrade, Ethereum is aiming for a faster and more consistent upgrade schedule. 

Preston says, “Ideally with two smaller forks each year. Pectra included a wide range of changes across the protocol, from validator improvements to account abstraction and rollup scalability. Moving forward, upgrades will likely be narrower in scope to allow for quicker shipping and easier testing. Developers are focused on accelerating Ethereum’s evolution while maintaining the network’s high stability.”

Commenting on Ethereum’s remarkable track record of zero downtime since the chain first went live, the ETH core developer says maintaining that stability “remains a top priority.” The ETH community should expect no decline in performance as Ethereum evolves and the growing developer base and improved coordination between teams allow for more complex upgrades. 

Stressing on how Ethereum will continue to gain relevance among institutional clients and investors, Preston told FXStreet:

“Ethereum’s role in real world asset tokenization is only growing, but there are challenges ahead. As institutional adoption increases, scalability and user experience at the L2 level will become even more critical. While Pectra’s expansion of blob capacity improves throughput, fragmentation across rollups and the complexity of the broader ecosystem could slow down mainstream adoption if not addressed. Improving interoperability between L2s and enhancing developer tooling will be key to keeping Ethereum the platform of choice for institutional use cases.”

Why Ethereum is at a turning point

Comparing Ethereum to Bitcoin, analysts at CryptoQuant said Ethereum may have seen the bottom as the ETH/BTC ratio hits its lowest level since January 2020. Since its lowest point, the ratio has rallied 38% in the second week of May and signals the beginning of a likely “altcoin season.”

An altcoin season is marked by the top 75% of tokens ranked in the top 50 assets by market cap outperforming Bitcoin in a period of 90 days. 

Analysts predict a return of the altcoin season as historic lows in the ETH/BTC ratio have previously marked the onset of an alt season and preceded broader altcoin outperformance in 2017, 2018 and 2019. 

ETH/BTC price chart | Source: CryptoQuant 

Analysts note in their report that investors now favor the purchase of Ether through ETFs. ETF holdings ratio has climbed since April, supporting the growing Ethereum demand. Key catalysts like the ratio’s rally since its lowest point, the successful implementation of the Pectra upgrade and a more favorable macro environment are likely influencing Ether price. 

Further, exchange inflow data supports Ethereum’s gains as selling pressure is relatively low compared to Bitcoin. Relative to the largest cryptocurrency, this could be a catalyst and push the altcoin higher, likely to re-test the $3,000 resistance and the 2024 peak above $4,100.