Key Takeaways:
Ethereum’s ‘secondary bull run’ is now in full swing. Analysts predict the price will $6,200 over the next three months. ETH crossed the psychological $4,000 barrier on Dec. 7, soaring 46% over the past month.Ethereum’s so-called ‘secondary bull run’ – or a resurgence of some sort – is now in full swing, with analysts targeting a price of $6,200 during the first three months of 2025.
Ethereum (ETH) has stagnated as Bitcoin (BTC) surged to $100,000. But the second most valuable cryptocurrency is starting to reverse this trend, soaring 10% over the past week and 46% over the past month to $3,996 at the time of writing.
Some market analysts say Ethereum is now in its secondary bull cycle phase, a period when the price is expected to rise much faster and higher than it did when it rallied to a two-year high of $4,070 in March.
They say both the technical and fundamental indicators point to a bullish outlook, with the price likely to break its previous all-time high of $4,900.
Ether Prepares for Rally Amid Bullish Signals
According to Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at Gibraltar-based crypto asset exchange CEX.io, ETH has shown bullish signals since October.
At the time, the weekly Relative Strength Index, or RSI – which measures how fast or big prices change – broke above its descending resistance trendline (seen in the chart below as a white line). Otychenko said the pattern is historically linked to bullish momentum.
He also spoke about the weekly MACD, which saw a “bullish crossover” (green circles) around the same time – something that’s often marked the start of a new rally.
Traders use MACD or Moving Average Convergence Divergence to make decisions about when to buy or sell an asset.
Otychenko said when such a combination of signals occurred in the past, it typically caused a more than 100% increase in the price of ETH, telling Cryptonews:
“Currently, Ethereum appears to be only halfway through completing this formation. If these historical patterns hold, Ethereum could reach $5,000–$6,200 in Q1 2025, with $5,600 serving as an average target.”
Performance-wise, history tends to favor ETH over BTC during the first quarter of the year, with gains of 93% on average, compared to BTC’s 56%.
Otychenko points out that ETH’s most notable outperformance of Bitcoin occurred during post-halving rallies in 2017 and 2021.
The ETH/BTC chart below also shows bearish divergence (white lines), suggesting that “Ethereum is well-positioned to outperform Bitcoin in the months ahead,” he added.
ETH Funding Rates Hit 0.04: Is a Price Surge Coming?
CryptoQuant analyst ShayanBTC notes that ETH’s funding rates, a metric that reflects sentiment in the futures market, have climbed above 0.04 in recent days, describing this as a sign of “increasing bullish momentum”.
Funding rates are periodic payments made between traders in the crypto futures markets to maintain a balance between the price of the perpetual contract and the spot market price of the asset it tracks.
A funding rate of 0.04 shows that those traders who expect the price of ETH to rise are dominating the market. The so-called long traders should pay 4% of the notional value of their position to those traders who expect to profit from a decline in the price of ETH, in order to keep the contract price in line with the spot price of the asset.
According to ShayanBTC, the rising funding rates indicate “heightened demand for long positions,” which can help trigger strong bull rallies.
But he also noted that the rates remain below the levels seen during ETH’s previous rally to a record high of $4,900 in November 2021.
“This suggests that while the market is gaining bullish momentum, it has not yet entered an overheated state,” the analyst wrote in a research note published earlier this December.
Historically, sharp spikes in funding rates often precede sudden market corrections or liquidation cascades. ShayanBTC says current levels imply there is “still room for further growth in both price and sentiment before such risks become critical.”
To put this into context, when funding rates hit 0.02 at the beginning of July 2020, the price of ETH soared over 100% within two months. Most recently on Oct. 4, 2023, when funding rates rose above 0.02, Ethereum climbed 150% in five months, crypto analyst Burak Kesmeci said on X.
Stars Align as Institutional Inerest in Ethereum Grows
Ben Kurland, cofounder of crypto research platform DYOR Labs, said the current price action reflects not just market sentiment, but also the strong fundamentals that underpin the Ethereum network.
He spoke as the price of ETH crossed the psychological $4,000 barrier on Dec. 7, its highest level in nine months.
“This isn’t just a reaction to Bitcoin—it’s a reflection of Ethereum’s growing adoption and the underlying strength of its ecosystem,” Kurland told Cryptonews, adding:
“The approval of spot Ether ETFs and significant whale accumulation are clear indicators that institutional confidence is solidifying, setting the stage for sustained growth.”
Ethereum’s value proposition lies in its utility as a token underpinning an active decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, currently with $78.7 billion of total value locked across different protocols, per Defillama data.
Other various Web3 innovations, including NFTs, are also mostly built on the blockchain, Kurland said. It means the success of Ethereum is closely tied to the growth and adoption of its network rather than its scarcity.
In recent months, however, Ethereum has turned inflationary. According to data from Ultra Sound Money, the Ethereum supply has risen by 374,553 ETH since early April to 120,439,038 ETH as of Dec. 6.
As supply surged, many people began to question the long-term stability and value of ETH, pointing to its past deflationary characteristics as an initial drawcard. It is one reason the ETH price has lagged behind BTC.
Ethereum Could Go As High As $10,000
Kurland is more optimistic about Ethereum’s growth trajectory. He predicts that ETH could surpass $10,000 in this cycle if broader market conditions remain favorable and institutional interest continues to grow.
“This isn’t speculative growth—it’s utility-driven,” he stressed.
Institutional investors have used exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to gain exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Since the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot ETFs tracking ETH in July, the products have attracted over $1.4 billion in capital, mostly from institutional investors.
By comparison, Bitcoin spot ETFs have seen $33.4 billion in total net inflows since their debut in January, according to Sosovalue data.
Laurent Zhang, president of the Ethereum layer 2 (L2) platform Arcology Network, told Cryptonews that he expects the price of Ether to break its previous all-time high of $4,900 three to six months from now.
His predictions are premised on the practical use cases of the Ethereum blockchain, including its use as a hub for Real World Assets (RWA). It suggests the ETH bull run is driven by both short-term market sentiment and long-term fundamentals, Zhang said.
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