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This week remains one of the most volatile for digital currencies, with Ethereum (ETH) prominently featured. Over the past 24 hours, the digital currency soared as high as $3,687, marking a five-month high. The price has since cooled off, but CryptoQuant confirmed that the coin has resumed the second leg of its bull run.

Ethereum's quest for ATH

At the time of writing, the price of Ethereum has slipped back to $3,620 but with a 5.92% surge in 24 hours. As CryptoQuant Analyst crypto sunmoon pointed out, Ethereum generally hits a higher price mark in subsequent bull cycles than what it creates in the first.

Ethereum’s all-time high (ATH) is $4,891.70. Ethereum must grow by at least 26% at current prices to surpass this level. Herein lies the catch: Ethereum's price has not retested the $4,000 resistance level since March of this year.

At the time, the coin breached this level temporarily as the hype around spot Bitcoin ETF approval triggered the first round of the bull cycle to BTC’s ATH. If Ethereum can surmount this psychologically important level at $4,000, reclaiming the ATH might be possible.

Fundamental leaning

Ethereum has many competitors as a blockchain protocol, even among its layer-2 scaling solutions. With the evolution of new retail-focused economies on Solana and L2s, Ethereum needs to catch up on key performance checklists.

However, there are plans to upscale the Ethereum blockchain. Cofounder Vitalik Buterin has showcased plans to scale the protocol. This evolutionary plan was conveyed in a series of updates featuring The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge and the Purge (not to forget about The Merge).

The ultimate goal remains to enhance Ethereum validation nodes to be hosted on mobile phones. The requirement to become a validator will also be lowered, and transaction speed will be greatly optimized. With this mega checklist, ETH may gain more adoption, thus aiding its longer-term growth streak.