Ether Surges Past $4,900 on Coinbase, Enters Price Discovery Phase Amid Mixed Analyst Views

Ether (ETH) broke new ground on Sunday, surpassing the $4,900 mark on Coinbase at 5:40 p.m. UTC and eclipsing its previous all-time high of $4,867 set on November 8, 2021.

A look at the five-year ETH-USD price chart on TradingView reveals a clear, multi-year breakout. After an extended period of consolidation, ETH has finally cleared its 2021 peak, leaving no historical resistance levels above, pushing the asset into a price discovery phase. This means the market is setting fresh highs, guided primarily by psychology and order flow rather than prior chart levels.

Zooming into the past five days’ price action, ETH surged from the mid-$4,700s, pierced through $4,900, and reached an intraday high near $4,946.90. At 6:48 p.m. UTC, the price was around $4,941.57. This movement indicates buyers successfully absorbed available supply near the old ceiling before pushing to new highs—a textbook breakout pattern.

Analyst Miles Deutsher captured the shifting momentum succinctly: “BTC is exhausted, ETH isn’t.” Simply put, Bitcoin’s rallies have struggled to extend beyond recent highs, while Ether is confidently breaking into new territory. When an asset is described as “exhausted,” it signals weakening upward momentum and seller dominance; conversely, “isn’t” implies strong follow-through and active buying.

Crypto Rover highlighted the diminishing supply of ETH on centralized exchanges. Exchange reserves, or coins held in wallets controlled by trading platforms, have been trending down. This reduction in liquid supply means fewer coins are readily available for sale. As demand rises and available supply thins, prices can accelerate since buyers must offer higher bids to pull coins off exchanges. This dynamic underpins Crypto Rover’s “supply shock” thesis—a setup that can amplify price moves once momentum gains traction, though it doesn’t guarantee uninterrupted gains.

Meanwhile, analyst Michaël van de Poppe offered a note of caution. He pointed to the unusually large weekly candle and reminded traders that weekend breakouts often experience pullbacks as liquidity normalizes during the start of the trading week. Weekend order books tend to be thinner, allowing prices to move more freely; when market participation increases on Monday, prices frequently revisit the breakout zone to test support before resuming the upward trend. Such a retracement would not invalidate the broader bullish breakout visible on the multi-year chart.