Ether Tops $3K for First Time in 2 Weeks

The world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), broke the $3,000 mark for the first time since March 2.

With the exception of a brief spike above $3,000 early this month and today's big move to the upside, ether has mostly meandered in the $2,400-$2,800 range during March.

ETH was trading at around $3,012 at press time, representing a 5.8% increase in the last 24 hours. The token powering Ethereum's blockchain has also broken out relative to the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, bitcoin BTC$74,674.82, which is up 3.8% on the day.

"We are seeing some strength in ETH, particularly relative to other assets in the ecosystem. ETH/BTC is now trading at around 0.07 again and will soon me meeting some short-term technical resistance at 0.072," Matthew Dibb, chief operating officer and co-founder of Stack Funds, told CoinDesk in a WhatsApp chat.

"The fundamentals for ETH are aligned for a move upwards, however a rally in ETH would also likely lead to an alt-wide rally across the board.," Dibb added.

"This surge in relative strength makes ETH look quite actionable from a trading perspective, and should help prices begin trending higher as this neutral consolidation gives way to a new uptrend," wrote FundStrat in its "Crypto Daily Report."

There was a significant uptick in ETH exchange outflows on Friday, with over 180,000 withdrawn, according to data from IntoTheBlock, a crypto data firm. "The last time such a magnitude of ETH left exchanges was in October 2021, which preceded a 15% price increase within 10 days," the firm tweeted.