The price of the second-largest cryptocurrency is rising faster than Bitcoin: in the last 24 hours, Bitcoin has increased by 3%, while Ethereum has surged by 7.4%.

Source: CoinGecko.

Over the past week, Ethereum has also shown stronger performance, gaining 14.1% compared to Bitcoin's 9.6%.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $73,546, while Ethereum is priced at $2,253.

Hourly chart of ETH/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView. Hourly chart of BTC/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView.

Erik Voorhees Buys $56.5 Million in Ethereum

Analysts at Lookonchain, citing Arkham data, reported that former ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees purchased 24,968 ETH for $56.5 million.

Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees), an early #Bitcoin supporter and founder of ShapeShift, is buying ETH like crazy after a one-year break!

He spent 49.08M $USDT to buy 23,393 $ETH at $2,098 through 2 wallets.

He still holds 35.25M $USDT and may buy more $ETH.… pic.twitter.com/18ifLc8Ghe

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 16, 2026

He used two crypto wallets for the purchase. A year ago, Voorhees sold 12,886 ETH at a price of $3,324. One of his addresses still holds 4.44 million USDT and 8.64 million AETHUSDT, while the other has fully converted all stablecoins into Ethereum.

Voorhees' renewed interest in the asset aligns with the overall sentiment among institutional investors. This trend is supported by statistics showing that last week, net inflows into spot ETFs based on the asset reached $160.8 million.

Additionally, Lookonchain analysts recorded another significant transaction: CEO of Intuition Protocol, Billy Ludtke, acquired 7,769 ETH.

Early Ethereum builder billΞ.eth (@0xbilly) is also buying $ETH!

Wallet 0xf792, linked to @0xbilly, spent $17.46M to buy 7,769 $ETH at an average price of $2,248 in the past 2 hours.https://t.co/bo2M5mXX6N pic.twitter.com/sxHol6L1Ga

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 16, 2026

Buterin Proposes Simplifying Ethereum Node Launch

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin suggested merging the programs for interacting with nodes on the Beacon Chain and the execution layer into a single code structure. This initiative aims to simplify the setup of network nodes.

We should be open to revisiting the whole beacon/execution client separation thing.

Running two daemons and getting them to talk to each other is far more difficult than running one daemon.

Our goal is to make the self-sovereign way of using Ethereum have good UX. In many cases…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 15, 2026

Currently, validators use two separate programs. Coordinating their setup and data creates a high technical barrier. Due to these complexities, many users are forced to abandon self-hosting their infrastructure and rely on third-party services.

Buterin noted that launching a node has become a "daunting" task reserved for technical specialists.

"We need to change this. Working with one's own Ethereum infrastructure should be a basic right for everyone. Nodes should be easy to launch," he wrote.

The Ethereum creator added that even with the right hardware and skills, users often lack the time to set up the system. He deemed excuses regarding high hardware requirements and experience as unacceptable.

Recall that in March, analysts at CryptoQuant predicted a drop in the second-largest cryptocurrency to $1,500 amid the "acceptance paradox."