Ethereum has witnessed exceptional growth this quarter. It has surged over 8% in the past 24 hours alone to trade above $4,600.

But retail traders remain in “disbelief” as the altcoin edges closer to its all-time high, now just 6.3% shy of the $4,891 record from November 16, 2021.

Retail Fear

Despite the rally, smaller investors have continued selling rather than buying. According to the latest data shared by Santiment, this move echoed a sentiment trend historically linked to price moves opposite retail expectations.

While pullbacks followed extreme greed in June and July 2025, current sentiment is dominated by fear, uncertainty, and doubt even as the leading altcoin logs new highs.

With larger players steadily absorbing the coins sold by smaller holders, the crypto analytic platform believes ETH has little sentiment-based resistance before potentially climbing to its historic peak and exploring new price levels.

Altcoin Vector, for one, observed that Ethereum’s new peak “is only a matter of time,” and when the crypto asset breaks a significant technical barrier, it often sparks a market rotation, where capital flows from Bitcoin or stablecoins into altcoins. This is particularly true for those closely tied to Ethereum’s ecosystem.

The platform revealed that ETH’s breakout is not only bullish for itself but also acts as a catalyst for narratives like Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSDs), DeFi protocols, and ETH-Beta tokens. A weekly close above the all-time high would validate the breakout on a higher timeframe, which could potentially lead to more upside pressure and usher in the “next phase” of the cycle.

Price Targets

Ethereum’s daily transactions have reached a record 1.875 million. This is a “confluence point,” as price approaches a major supply area, while network fundamentals show peak activity. A decisive breakout above $4,750, supported by a steady transaction momentum, could trigger a new price discovery phase.

On the other hand, strong seller defense may lead to short-term consolidation or a pullback toward $3,950.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s long-term holder sentiment also shifted from capitulation to belief, which can be a sign of early bullish cycle stages. Experts say that reduced selling pressure and stronger holding behavior set a favorable backdrop for price growth. According to crypto analyst Ali Martinez, ETH’s next hurdles are $5,210 and $6,946, respectively.

In terms of other network fundamentals, new smart contract creation hit an all-time high following the Pectra upgrade. As such, continued developer activity, surging DeFi and NFT usage, and record contract growth strengthen the case for Ethereum’s next upward leg toward these resistance targets.

A new functionality is being introduced to the Etherlink ecosystem, which is built on top of Tezos’ rollup technology, that aims to expand the use cases.

New Capabilities

Shared to CryptoPotato via a news release, the creators behind Stacy.fi, a staking platform built on the Tezos blockchain, have introduced stXTZ, a liquid staked version of the native blockchain token XTZ, to the EVM-compatible Layer 2 (L2) blockchain Etherlink.

It enables users to maintain complete liquidity of their funds while continuing to generate staking rewards by engaging with DeFi applications on the Tezos Smart Rollup-powered Etherlink.

The liquid staking market worldwide has experienced significant growth, surpassing $45 billion, driven by similar financial instruments like stETH from Lido Finance, which have become the backbone assets of DeFi ecosystems. These liquid tokens are addressing capital inefficiencies in traditional staking, as users can maintain asset liquidity while receiving staking rewards, which has likely led to their widespread adoption and growth.

The Stacy staking platform is powered by Acurast, a computational network, and developed by contributors from Ubinetic AG, which specializes in developing synthetic assets, on behalf of the Youves decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

After the successful approval of governance, the DAO, comprising YOU token stakers who are native to the organization, now also manages the pool for stXTZ, the token itself, and the manager contracts. Holders of the staked token retain 90% staking rewards, and 10% goes to a reward-collecting contract overseen by the DAO.

DeFi Expansion

A contributor from the Youves organization shared his thoughts:

“stXTZ from Stacy.fi allows DeFi users in the Tezos ecosystem to make use of their Tezos funds in DeFi offers on Tezos L1 and its rapidly emerging Layer 2 Etherlink, while contributing to the security of the L1 and earning 90% of the potential staking rewards.

With stXTZ, the ecosystem is ready for the next era of DeFi, not only on the L1, but also on the current and future L2s.”

The combination utilizes the bridging infrastructure from Etherlink, where stXTZ tokens are locked on the Tezos Layer 1, and ERC-20 compliant proxy tokens are created on Etherlink’s underlying Layer 2. A price oracle compatible with Chainlink delivers real-time price updates for DeFi platforms.

In a press release shared with CryptoPotato, Incentiv, a Layer 1 (L1) EVM-compatible blockchain, has shared results from the ongoing testnet, along with a robust economic model that rewards network participants in proportion to their participation.

Community-Focused

Their consensus model is a contribution-scored Proof of Work (PoW), rewarding on-chain activity rather than mere capital inflow. Over 1.2 million wallets have been created on the testnet, with Incentiv laying the foundations of a permissionless network that users benefit from the more they contribute.

At the core of the its architecture is the Incentiv+ engine, a unified reward system that gathers portions of the value and fees from every transaction and places them into a communal Unified Reward Pool, which automatically distributes the rewards to network contributors.

Compensation for participation is proportionally allocated to all users, regardless of whether they’re a miner, developer, liquidity provider, or engage in any other activity that benefits the ecosystem. This differs from traditional models such as fixed block rewards, as the payouts here are linked to economic throughput.

To further catalyze the community-centric model, 26% of the total supply of the native token, $CENT, has been pre-loaded in a separate Community Rewards pool. This ensures that outsized rewards are available from day one, even before transaction volumes increase and transaction fees are taken into account.

Moreover, a Short-Term Growth Fund is available for selective enhancement of key activities or strategic initiatives in the initial phase. This aligns strategically with Incentiv’s economic model, which is designed to transition from a subsidy-driven to a self-sustaining model through fees.

Expanded Capabilities

The public testnet, which launched earlier this year, has gained popularity in a short timeframe, underscoring the interest in the novel approach to value creation. Thousands of challenges have been completed, and over 1.7 billion testnet $TCENT tokens have been distributed.

This reflects strong enthusiasm from developers and everyday users alike for the portfolio of products Incentiv offers, all grounded in Advanced Account Abstraction. Some other capabilities include:

• Unified token: flexible gas payments made possible by allowing fees in any supported token
• Passkey Wallets: passwordless, device-integrated, that improve security and the user experience
• Bundled Transactions: users can group multiple actions into a single signed transaction
• Native DEX: integrated decentralized exchange facilitating token swaps to cover fees or provide liquidity
• Open SDK: a toolkit for developers, allowing frictionless dApp sign-in, connecting users with Incentiv with just a few lines of code