Citigroup recently raised its year-end price target for ether to $4,500 from $4,300, due to strong flows from exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and digital asset treasuries, per a Reuters article, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, the brokerage cut its bitcoin forecast to $133,000 from $135,000.

Ethereum (ETH) is skyrocketing this year, outperforming Bitcoin. Ethereum has gained 32% this year while Bitcoin has added about 27% (as of Oct. 1, 2025). Ethereum continues to dominate due to growing interest in staking, tokenization and institutional adoption.

President Trump’s GENIUS Act — the country’s first major national cryptocurrency legislation (per BBC) — has also favored the crypto rally this year.

Whale and institutional buying have been a driving force behind Ethereum’s rally. Companies are also holding Ethereum in their treasuries. Bitmine now owns 1 million ETH, following a strategy similar to Bitcoin’s early adoption. Even large Bitcoin holders are now rotating into Ethereum, as quoted on a tradingnews.com article issued in late August.

Ethereum’s rising dominance is pulling money into the wider crypto market. Analysts are turning more bullish on ETH. Standard Chartered raised its year-end target to $7,500, due to institutional adoption, as quoted on the above-mentioned tradingnews.com article.

CoinCodex expects ETH to surge above $7,200 before the end of the year, as quoted on the same tradingnews.com article. With strong ETF demand, staking yields, and Layer 2 scaling, Ethereum’s fundamentals are stronger than in the 2021 bull run, the very tradingnews.com article indicated.

ETFs like Vaneck Ethereum ETF ETHV and iShares Ethereum Trust ETF ETHA added about 1.5% each over the past month. Meanwhile, bitcoin ETFs like iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF IBIT and Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund FBTC have advanced about 6% each during this timeframe.

This could be because of the profit-booking in Ethereum. Now that some of richer valuation has been corrected in Ethereum over the past month, investors might jump into this segment in the short term.

The Fed is also likely to cut rates ahead. An easy money policy is beneficial for high-risk investing areas like cryptocurrencies. Plus, the Fed rate cuts are also likely to cut the value of the U.S. dollar. A decline in the value of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar may put upward pressure on cryptocurrencies.

At Korea Blockchain Week 2025, Fundstrat’s co-founder Tom Lee, predicted Ethereum could reach $7K–$12K this year, as quoted on Coin Central. He sees ETH entering a decade-long “super cycle,” thanks to AI adoption, applications in finances, and growing trust from Wall Street and policymakers through stablecoins and tokenized assets, as quoted on the same Coin Central article.