The imminent arrival of 2.0 is a factor, as is the market recovery after the price suppression of CV19. But the main reason is probably the rise (and FOMO) of ETH-based DeFi.
The bull started by ETH then extended to other alts, and after that even to BTC. ETH is the reason that BTC broke and held above $10k.
Although, I know ETHEREUM now has a plan for POS where they need to produce 32 ETH each investors.
That's only for individual staking. There will no doubt be pools and indeed exchanges where you can stake any amount of ETH, certainly well below the 32 threshold. But people will be buying ETH in the anticipation of staking rewards, yes, not so much to reach 32, but just to accumulate more than they have already.