Ether Rallies to 8-Month High, Gains Ground Against Bitcoin

Ether (ETH), the native token of Ethereum's blockchain, rose to an eight-month high on Tuesday, outshining market leader bitcoin (BTC) as U.S. stock futures traded higher while the dollar index dipped.

Ether rose nearly 3% to $1,873, the highest since August, according CoinDesk data. Bitcoin rose 1.7% to $28,300.

The ether-bitcoin ratio rose over 1% to 0.066, taking back a small portion of the 7% decline seen last month.

Futures tied to Wall Street's tech-heavy index Nasdaq rose 0.35% to a fresh eight-month high, offering bullish cues to risk assets, including cryptocurrencies. Nasdaq futures have rallied over 20% this year, entering a bull market.

Investors continued to sell the safe-haven greenback, driving the dollar index, which gauges the U.S. dollar's exchange rate against major currencies, to a two-month low of 101.79.

Ether's outperformance comes as the highly anticipated Shanghai upgrade is now less than two weeks away. The Shanghai upgrade will open withdrawals of ether staked in the Beacon Chain since December 2020 and has been widely hailed as a long-term bullish catalyst for ether and liquid staking tokens.

"ETH looks to regain ground against BTC as part of a broader capital rotation play with crypto likely benefiting off broader equity rallies heading into a historically bullish month," Decentral Park Capital's portfolio manager Lewis Harland said in a weekly note published Monday.