Ether surges, trading close to its record again after Powell speech teasing rate cuts

Ether's price experienced a significant rebound on Friday, nearing its all-time highs following comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell regarding potential rate cuts. This resurgence saw the second-largest cryptocurrency climb almost 10%, reaching $4,652.51, according to Coin Metrics. Just last week, ether almost touched its record high of $4,866.01 from 2021, before dipping as low as $4,000 earlier this week. In parallel, Bitcoin also saw gains, rising 4% to $116,659.12. These price movements coincided with Powell's annual address delivered from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. During his speech, he remarked that with monetary policy currently restrictive, the evolving economic outlook might necessitate a reevaluation of their policy stance. Following Powell's remarks, ether experienced a significant amount of trading activity, with approximately $120 million in short liquidations occurring within just one hour, as reported by CoinGlass. Traders who had bet against ether were compelled to buy back the cryptocurrency to cover their positions, driving its price even higher and resulting in further liquidations. Shares of companies heavily invested in ether, which had suffered earlier in the week during a shift away from technology stocks, saw a bounceback on Friday. Notably, Bitmine Immersion surged by 14%, while SharpLink Gaming rose by 12%. Conversely, shares of Peter Thiel-backed ETHzilla faced a dramatic drop, tumbling over 38% at one point after announcing a resale of up to 74.8 million shares, ultimately closing down 30% post-speech. In other developments, the treasury firm DeFi Development, focused on Solana, saw its shares surge by 19%, while cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase gained 6%. Stablecoin issuer Circle rose by 7%, and bitcoin proxy Strategy added 5%. In terms of investment flows, ether ETFs recorded inflows of $287.6 million on Thursday, breaking a four-day streak of outflows, according to crypto research platform SoSoValue. However, the funds were still on track for their first week of net outflows since May 9, totaling $578.9 million, marking the largest week of outflows on record. Bitcoin ETFs also faced challenges, logging outflows for five consecutive sessions, culminating in a total of $1.15 billion for the week, positioning them for their most significant week of net outflows since February 28.