BTC reaches $110,000 again, will ETH take the lead?

Bitcoin (BTC) has surged 3.7% in the past 24 hours, reclaiming the $110,000 mark, nearing its May all-time high, while Ethereum (ETH) rose 3.8% to $2,620, raising questions about whether ETH's growth is merely following BTC or gaining independent momentum.
Crypto analyst DCinvestor predicts ETH could hit $10,000 within a year, driven by institutional and corporate investments rather than retail investors, who he claims have been "brainwashed" into undervaluing ETH.
ETH ETFs have seen strong institutional interest, with $296.4 million inflows in the latest week and $1.5 billion over seven weeks, signaling growing confidence in ETH's market potential.
The Pectra upgrade, completed in May, enhances Ethereum's scalability by improving blob handling and consensus-layer data retention, strengthening its long-term fundamentals despite recent "boring" price action.
Technically, ETH shows bullish signals, including a rebound from May lows, a "bull flag" pattern, and a "golden cross" between the 50-day and 200-day moving averages, with key resistance levels at $2,900-$3,000.

In the past 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) has risen 3.7% and re-entered the $110,000 mark, just one step away from the all-time high set in May. At the same time, Ethereum (ETH) also rose 3.8% and rebounded to above $2,620, showing its linkage with Bitcoin.

But the key question is: As Bitcoin approaches its all-time high, is Ethereum's rise just a passive follow-up? Or is a more independent ETH market brewing?

Analyst: ETH will reach $10,000 within the next year

Well-known crypto market analyst DCinvestor boldly predicted on social media that ETH will reach $10,000 or even higher within the next year.

He believes that the real driving force will no longer be the return of retail investors, because they may have been "brainwashed" and have a biased view of the true value of ETH and will not be able to buy it again.

DCinvestor said: "Retail investors will not return to ETH. They have been completely brainwashed by the'psychological warfare' and believe that ETH is worthless. But they will be forced to watch ETH rise to $10,000 because companies, governments and Wall Street are injecting trillions of dollars into this chain."

DCinvestor compared this phenomenon with Bitcoin's 2017 cycle, pointing out that ETH's development is two cycles slower than BTC, but it is progressing step by step. He emphasized that the new batch of market buyers will not care about the doubts or "concerns" in the market because they don't even know the existence of those "old-school" critics.

Continued inflows into ETH ETFs: a clear signal of institutional interest

Data doesn’t lie. CoinShares’ latest report shows that Ethereum-related investment products have led digital asset inflows for the second consecutive week since May 16, attracting $296.4 million in funds, bringing the total seven-week fund flow to $1.5 billion.

“This is the strongest inflow since the U.S. election,” wrote James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, adding that the figure now accounts for 10.5% of total Ethereum assets under management.

Redstone co-founder and COO Marcin Kazmierczak noted that ETH’s upward momentum appears to be driven by several factors: institutional ETF flows showing renewed interest in ETH products, and the market’s growing expectations for Ethereum roadmap upgrades.

Meanwhile, the ETH/BTC market cap ratio rose above 0.14, seen as a sign of a possible re-shift towards “risk-on” altcoins, which could be an early “signal” of a broader altcoin season.

Pectra upgrade boost

Despite the relatively “boring” recent price action, the fundamentals of ETH remain strong. The market is looking forward to the Ethereum roadmap upgrade, and the Pectra upgrade completed last month (May 7) has played a major role in this.

Luke Nolan, senior Ethereum researcher at CoinShares, said that although the Pectra upgrade did not bring a very significant single change, it included multiple improvements to the Ethereum protocol that laid the foundation for further expansion in the future, and the expansion issue has long been the main bottleneck of Ethereum.

One of the key features of the Pectra upgrade is to expand the Ethereum blockchain’s ability to handle “blobs” (temporary data storage units), which helps retain more data on the consensus layer. Nolan believes that sometimes a small narrative is enough to drive positive sentiment.

Technical trend is good

From the Tradingview technical chart, Ethereum's current trend also shows positive signals. As of the time of writing, the price has rebounded strongly from the May low to about $2,665 and is firmly above the weekly pivot point (PP, about $2,400-2,500).

On the downside, $2,483-2,485 constitutes immediate support, while weekly pivot points and deeper Fibonacci support provide a good base. Notably, a potential “bull flag” pattern is showing on the chart, and a key “golden cross” has formed between the 50-day moving average and the 200-day moving average, which are strong bullish signals.

ETH continues to gather strength above $2,520, indicating that short-term buying power is dominant. The key resistance above is R1 (about $2,900-3,000) and historical highs, so bulls are expected to continue to attack higher resistance levels in the near future. However, investors still need to pay close attention to market volume and breakthroughs at key positions to confirm the sustainability of the upward trend.