Ether (ETH) Update: Strong Performance in May

Ether has surged by 45% in the last month, outpacing both the decentralized finance market and bitcoin, which grew by 21% and 13% respectively during the same timeframe.

This increase in ether’s value is largely driven by heightened interest from institutional investors, resulting in unprecedented inflows linked to spot ETH ETFs.

Ether’s ascent follows a period of weakened market sentiment earlier this year, as competing layer-1 blockchains like Solana drew attention with a wave of new memecoin launches.

At the beginning of the year, ether was valued at $3,340, but by early April, it fell to a low of $1,472 due to global market uncertainties around U.S. tariffs.

Recently, it has been reported that ether has successfully ended an 18-month downtrend against Solana and is reclaiming its position within the DeFi sector.

A notable factor behind this renewed interest seems to be the associated yields—data from DefiLlama indicates that total value locked (TVL) in restaking protocols like Lido, EigenLayer, and Ether.fi has climbed between 41% and 48% in just this month, while the TVL of Binance’s staked ether product has seen an impressive 63% increase.

In contrast, Solana’s DeFi protocols have not experienced similar growth, with Jupiter’s and Kamino’s TVL only increasing by 7% and 9% respectively, and Marinade’s liquid staking protocol seeing a 29% rise.

The recent upward trend in ether’s performance signals a notable rebound from earlier this year, bolstered by growing institutional interest and robust expansion within DeFi protocols.