Ethereum price all-time high follows reduced gas costs and DeFi revival

Analysts expect Ether price to rally to new all-time highs since the Berlin upgrade resulted in a drop in gas fees and a surge in DeFi activity.

Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency continues to reach new highs in 2021 thanks to the growth of popular sectors like decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). 

The explosive growth seen over the past year would not have been possible without the Ethereum network, which saw the price of Ether (ETH) break out to a new all-time high on April 27 following the successful launch of the "Berlin" upgrade on April 15.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of Ether has rallied 27% over the past five days from a low of $2,107 on April 25 to a new record high of $2,680 on April 27 as altcoins appear to be gaining momentum.

ETH/BTC foretold the move

Signs of an impending breakout have been appearing for a while, as pointed out by Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Real Vision Group.

To be brutally honest, I stare at the chart of ETH/BTC and I see an enormous rounded bottom with potentially huge breakout just above.... pic.twitter.com/85hfawq0bx

— Raoul Pal (@RaoulGMI) April 21, 2021

Following the price shakeout on April 24, when Bitcoin (BTC) dipped to $46,000 before springing back above $54,000, Ether gained ground on the top cryptocurrency.

Struggles with high transaction costs and slower confirmation times have weighed heavily on Ether's price over the past couple of months as the excitement around DeFi and NFTs has led to skyrocketing activity on the network.

After the Berlin upgrade was successfully implemented on April 15, the average gas fee began to decline to more manageable levels, resulting in an increase in trading volume on the top decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and SushiSwap.

With a majority of the top DeFi and NFT protocols currently operating on Ethereum, the uptick in activity has resulted in the price of Ether appreciating faster than BTC in the short term, as predicted by several analysts.

Expecting $ETH to gain another 15% to 20% on BTC in the next couple weeks

There's certainly room to move up on the higher time frames

If this happens, altcoins will have some nice follow up pumps along the way

Don't worry, we still very much ❤️Bitcoin and its pump is coming pic.twitter.com/mEs8EjGg2l

— Rager (@Rager) April 27, 2021

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for Ether on April 25, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for Ether began to trend higher on April 23 and registered a high score of 71 on April 25, roughly five hours before the price began to rally 11% over the next two days.

With DeFi-related activity again on the uptrend and excitement building for Ethereum 2.0 and the full migration to proof-of-stake, Ether price looks well-positioned for further upside.