Ethereum crosses $3,100 ahead of Dencun upgrade

Ethereum (ETH-USD) is rising on Monday, climbing above $3,100. The cryptocurrency has been moving upward on growing speculation that there could eventually be spot Ethereum ETFs as well as the upcoming Dencun upgrade.

Yahoo Finance's Jared Blikre breaks down the price action.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: Let's take a look at Ethereum. We have certainly seen a rally play out now well above a $3,000, crossing above that $3,100 level. Jared Blikre has a closer look at this rally that we've seen, and exactly, I guess, why we're seeing this rally, and what this could mean here for what's ahead, Jared.

JARED BLIKRE: Yeah. Sometimes it's difficult to tease out the catalyst and the true meaning and origins behind these moves. But one of the reasons-- so two things happening actually. There is a spot Ethereum ETF. There's lots of hype around that. Very similar to the spot Bitcoin ETF.

But there's also an upgrade scheduled for March 12. It then can upgrade. That's supposed to make it more quick, more compatible, actually more faster with respect to Solana. I guess that's the word I was looking for.

I do find it interesting that over the last three days, Ethereum has been up 4.1% while Solana competitor is down about 7/10 of a percent. So I think, Seana, that actually gives some weight to that potential argument that this is, in fact, about the upgrade.

But let's take a look at the price action. This is over the last three days. We actually punched above $3,000 a few days ago over the weekend. And let me just show you a five-year view. So we can see those record highs right around $5,000.

Now, as it happens, a lot of times, when we don't have a lot of price history, we've just gone straight up, sometimes it pauses at these big psychological levels. $3,000 was a level. $3,500 is a level right here. $4,000 is a level. So we'll have to watch these, as we keep heading higher here. But it looks like there's a lot of fuel in the tank for crypto.

We have the Bitcoin halvening. That's Bitcoin, not Ethereum, but there's-- it does create a lot of excitement around Bitcoin and crypto, in general, when we have these halvenings. And that's going to happen in April.

Every time that's happened before, that has kicked off a crypto supercycle. So we could be in store for that as well. And since I mentioned Solana, even though it's a laggard over the last few days, here's a look at Solana over the last five years. This was an even more parabolic chart that we saw a couple of years ago in its rise.

But I'm checking out this consolidation here. And let me put a three-month chart on. This is a pretty tight formation. And I got to think with price coming off of these lows very quickly, and then taking a few months to regroup, that only makes it more likely that whenever we launch beyond this point, that this will be used as a support base.

So for instance, if we were able to launch up here, come back down, these levels right in here around $100, $105 should theoretically act as support. Guys?

SEANA SMITH: All right. Jared, thanks so much for breaking that down. Certainly, seems like, at least, for now, the crypto bull market getting just a bit wider.