I wrote about BTC this morning but honestly the real story today is ETH. It’s up over 9% to $2,386 and that’s the highest it’s traded since early February. For a coin that’s been stuck in the mud for months, this kind of move demands attention.
Bitcoin got the headline with its 5% jump. Ethereum quietly doubled it. And the data behind this move is a lot more convincing than just a single day of green candles.
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Why Is Ethereum Going Up Today?
The same Iran peace deal catalyst that lifted BTC is hitting ETH harder because ETH has more room to run. According to Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, ETH is the best-performing major asset since the Iran conflict began—up 17.4%, outpacing the S&P 500 by over 1,800 basis points.
That’s not a typo. When risk appetite turns on, money flows to higher-beta assets first. BTC is the safe haven play within crypto. ETH is where the leverage goes. Traders on Binance and Kraken in the US are rotating into ETH pairs aggressively. I’m seeing the same pattern on WazirX and CoinDCX in India where ETH/INR volume is running at multiples of its 30-day average.
Are Ethereum Whales Buying Right Now?
Yes, and visibly. Santiment flagged that whale wallets holding 100,000 ETH or more jumped from 54 to 57 in the past week alone. Three new mega-wallets accumulating at these levels is not subtle—that’s over $700 million in concentrated buying.
Every time this metric has spiked historically, price followed within days, not weeks. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s 7-day moving average of total transfers just hit a new all-time high above 1.3 million. The network has never been this active. More transfers mean more gas burned under EIP-1559, which creates deflationary pressure on ETH supply. Traders on Upbit in South Korea are tracking the same data and volume there confirms the bid.
Is ETH Outperforming BTC in April 2026?
By a wide margin. ETH is up 12.4% over the past week against BTC’s 8.1%. Today alone ETH gained 9.2% versus BTC’s 5.2%. The Swissblock Risk Index just flipped to “low risk” for the first time since mid-March, and when that happens, capital rotates from BTC into alts.
ETH catches it first because of the ETF infrastructure and the staking yield. The market cap hit $287 billion today with $12 billion in 24-hour volume. That’s real liquidity, not thin alt-book nonsense. On Luno in South Africa and Nigeria, the ETH spread tightened significantly today which tells me maker depth is improving fast.
Should I Buy ETH or BTC Today?
If you’re playing momentum, ETH. BTC is pressing against resistance at $74,800 and the 200-day MA is way up at $87,500—that’s a lot of air to cover. ETH has a cleaner path toward $2,600–$2,800 and the beta is working in its favor right now.
That said, BTC is the safer hold if the Iran deal falls apart overnight. I’m splitting the position—60% ETH, 40% BTC.
Price continues to trade sideways, which is an improvement from prior Downtrend. Near-term, price has broken above $2,100 support and reached our target of $2,400 resistance. Now we wait for price to either 1) break above $2,400 to signal continuation of reversal, with +15% upside potential to $2,700 next, or or 2) pull back near $2,100 support for another swing trade entry with upside potential back to $2,400.
My Trade Setup
Long ETH spot. Entry: $2,340–$2,390 on any retest of the breakout level. Target 1 is $2,550—that’s the CoinCodex near-term ceiling and the upper band of April projections. Target 2 is $2,800 if the whale buying continues and altcoin rotation holds through the week. Stop below $2,180—if it drops back under the old resistance-turned-support, the breakout is fake and I’m out.
This market added $100 billion in cap today. The fear is leaving. Ethereum is leading. I’m positioned for it.
My money, my risk. Not financial advice.
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