Cryptocurrency bettors saw high chances of Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) hitting $5,000 this year as whales continued to pile on the second-largest cryptocurrency.

ETH surged over 4% in the last 24 hours, pushing its weekly returns beyond 12%.

The rally drew the attention of high-profile investors, with BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes buying up 113.7 ETH, valued at more than $536,000, on Monday, according to on-chain analytics firm Arkham.

Hayes’ total ETH holdings have now surpassed $30 million, making them the largest in his portfolio.

See Also:Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction: 2025, 2026, 2030

The rally raised expectations in prediction markets, with Polymarket punters placing 87% odds on ETH reaching $5000 or higher before the year ends, up from 10% the day before.

The odds of ETH surpassing $6,000 increased to 43%, whereas the likelihood of the coin breaking $7,000 stood at 25% as of this writing.

Similarly, bettors on Kalshi, a federally regulated prediction site, projected a 83% probability of ETH surpassing $5000 this year, and a 17% chance of topping $5.

Note that U.S. residents are currently barred from using Polymarket, but the platform is expected to start operations in the near future.

The optimism comes as ETH outperforms other large-cap cryptocurrencies in 2025, including Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and some of the so-called “ETH Killers” such as Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) and Avalanche (CRYPTO: AVAX).

Price Action: At the time of writing, ETH was exchanging hands at $4,716.92, up 4.33% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Photo Courtesy: Tomasz Makowski on Shutterstock.com

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