Ethereum rose 3 percent to $3,875 as decentralized finance (DeFi) activity reached a two-month high of $71 billion in total value locked. Analysts attributed the surge to increasing liquidity in liquid staking protocols and renewed institutional inflows. Trading volume exceeded $18 billion over 24 hours. The rally also pushed key altcoins higher, including Polygon and Avalanche. Developers said network upgrades under Ethereum’s ‘Dencun’ update are boosting scalability and lowering gas costs, further enhancing investor confidence in layer-1 ecosystems.