Ether (ETH) hit fresh all-time highs and neared $two,000 for the first fourth dimension on February. 18 as momentum returned to trading.

ETH/USD i-solar day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

ETH sets sights on $2,000

Information from Cointelegraph Markets and Tradingview showed ETH/USD coming within iv% of the $2,000 barrier on Thursday.

After spending much of February trading sideways with small upward momentum, the largest altcoin reawakened this week. At the time of writing, daily gains totaled more than 4%, with Ether clocking new best highs of $1,930.

In a fresh market place update, Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe forecast a potential breakout to $2,200 should bulls successfully tackle $ii,000.

Due to the extended menses spent at merely below that level, however, it was of import that these hold as support in lodge to avoid a dramatic retracement.

"However, one time over again, quite a catchy breakout, so you basically accept to watch that zone... at $one,820," he summarized.

A failure of support would in turn bring $1,400 back into play, this potentially coming if Bitcoin (BTC) besides sees a correction from near all-time highs of its own, Van de Poppe added.

As Cointelegraph reported, Ether's gains have outstripped Bitcoin in 2021, with year-to-date gains of 164% versus around 85% for BTC/USD.

BTC and ETH yr-to-date performance. Source: Digital Assets Data

Sellers fail to materialize

Meanwhile, information coming to light this calendar week sheds some light on long-closed events, which could have aided Ether's meteoric rising.

Published by Ki Immature Ju, CEO of on-chain analytics service CryptoQuant, withdrawal figures for Coinbase show 3 very big tranches of around 200,000 ETH leaving the commutation for private wallets in 2020.

Coinbase ETH outflows chart. Source: CryptoQuant

According to Ki, these could have come in the form of large book investors closing over-the-counter (OTC) deals similar to what was previously observed with Bitcoin.

"At that place were three consecutive massive $ETH outflows from Coinbase cold wallets terminal yr," he wrote in comments alongside a nautical chart showing the transactions.

"Speculative guess but those might be OTC deals for institutional investors similar $BTC Coinbase outflows."

Ki suggested that information technology may be worth setting alerts to monitor similar behavior in case this is a trigger for price performance.

"$ETH all-fourth dimension high in 2021 is different from 2018," he added in a further tweet on Thursday.

"Fewer deposits, more withdrawals beyond all exchanges. Selling pressure significantly weaker than in 2018."