Ethereum rises roughly 40% from lows below $1,750 after a brutal week for the second-largest cryptocurrency

• Ethereum's price rose roughly 40% to briefly touch $2,500 per coin on Monday.
• The jump in price came after a brutal sell-off last week for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
• Despite a recent drop in prices, new research shows ether miners made a record $1.93 billion in revenue in May.

Ether rose roughly 40% on Monday to briefly touch $2,500 per coin after a brutal stretch last week saw the second-largest cryptocurrency fall below $1,750 and lose billions in market cap.

The cryptocurrency is still down more than 40% from its May 11 record highs of over $4,100 per coin.

Ethereum is in the process of moving to a consensus mechanism called proof-of-stake (PoS) from its original proof-of-work (PoW) concept.

The transition, known as Ethereum 2.0, will slash the digital currency's energy use amid pressure on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over their environmental impact.

"Switching to proof of stake has become more urgent for us because of how crypto and Ethereum have grown over the last year," Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of Ethereum, told Bloomberg in a recent interview.

Cryptocurrencies have been under pressure for their excessive energy consumption, and criticism ramped up after Tesla said it would stop accepting bitcoin due to its environmental impact.

The news has caused "green" cryptocurrencies that use models other than the energy-intensive proof-of-work concept, like Chia, to explode in popularity.

Despite recent bearish news for the crypto community, ethereum has received some expert support of late from a number of sources.

eToro's most-copied female trader, Heloïse Greeff, told Insider that she believes ethereum is a better buy than the leading crypto, bitcoin, in a recent interview.

Wilson Withiam, an analyst at Messari who specializes in blockchain protocols, also told Bloomberg that "it's hard to ignore that the ESG narrative is going to be big."

"If you're looking at Ether as an investment, it doesn't have that looming over it," Withiam added.

New research from The Block also shows ether miners made a record $1.93 billion in revenue in May.