Key points:
Ether hits $4,000 for the first time since December 2024 in a key milestone for the year.
ETH price optimism continues with Ether taking chunks away from Bitcoin’s crypto market cap dominance.
BTC could still stage a fresh but short-lived rebound, analysis says.
Ether ( ETH ) returned to $4,000 for the first time in eight months Friday as Bitcoin ( BTC ) shed its crypto market cap share.
Ether in “reaccumulation zone” as bulls surge to $4,000
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed ETH/USD reaching $4,012 on Bitstamp.
Gaining around 1.7% on the day, the pair made history for 2025 by breaching the key psychological level, now under $900 from new all-time highs.
🔥 NOW: $ETH back at $4,000. pic.twitter.com/LorYt6ZgSr
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) August 8, 2025
Reacting, popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital was among those eyeing Ether’s increasing slice of the total crypto market cap.
“Ethereum Dominance is already ~50-60% of the way in its Macro Uptrend,” he calculated in an X post .
An accompanying chart compared current price action to the previous ETH bull run through 2021.
Others noted the ongoing investor preference for Ether over BTC, with popular trader Cas Abbe summarizing recent large-scale purchases.
$ETH continues to outperform $BTC 🚀
— Cas Abbé (@cas_abbe) August 8, 2025
Just today, a whale bought 10.4K ETH worth $40.5 million via OTC.
Yesterday, Fundamental Global Inc filed a $5 billion shelf offering to buy more ETH.
It feels like the $4K ETH resistance won't be there for long. pic.twitter.com/Zjsw1xhStS
Analytics resource Lookonchain meanwhile tracked whale transactions, seemingly aiming to capitalize on Ether’s relative strength.
As $ETH broke through $4,000, whale 0xaf6c just bought 1,390 $WETH ($5.56M) at $4,000.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 8, 2025
He then deposited this 1,390 $WETH into Aave, borrowed 52.83 $WBTC ($6.17M) from #Aave , and swapped it for 1,539 $WETH ($6.17M). pic.twitter.com/8lAwv4BA3F
Exchange order book data, featuring a “massive wall of long liquidations” beneath $3,960 meanwhile got X account TheKingfisher primed for further ETH price upside.
“This is what smart money hunts,” part of accompanying X commentary read.
“Most traders see a dump, we see a re-accumulation zone waiting to get fueled.”
Bitcoin dominance faces “inevitable” decline
The moves feed into an existing struggle for supremacy from altcoins, which has seen Bitcoin’s market cap dominance slide rapidly.
Related: Bitcoin Energy Value metric says ‘fair’ BTC price is as much as $167K
Bitcoin’s share fell below 60.7% on the day, again dicing with a critical support level .
In further X analysis, Rekt Capital said that while dominance could still rebound to traditional peak levels around 70%, its eventual breakdown was “inevitable.”
“And once that long-term technical uptrend is lost, BTC Dominance will transition into a long-term technical downtrend,” he forecast .
“And the long-term downside target would be a crash down into the low ~40%, maybe high 30% region.”
