Ethiopia’s pastoral lowlands are increasingly being incorporated into capitalist market logic, led both by state intervention and private actors. This paper particularly focuses on livestock commercialization over the past decade, and argues that this trend is benefiting wealthier pastoralist groups at the expense of the poor. The paper highlights five underlying factors. Firstly, the very engagement of the poor is for subsistence needs rather than targeting higher returns: meaning the poor are not attracted by perks of the market, rather are pushed to the market by absolute necessities. Secondly, the poor sell in bush/primary markets where prices are lower. The rich have better access to secondary/terminal markets, and as such earn higher profits. This gives the rich the option of buying from the poor in bush/primary markets and selling at higher profits in higher levels. Thirdly, state/NGO interventions (such as index based livestock insurance and commercial destocking), intentional or not, benefit wealthier pastoralists disproportionately. Fourth, the poor tend to own and sell small ruminants (rather than larger stock), which fetch lower prices and profit margins. Fifth, wealthier pastoralists are engaged in activities which further improve their accumulation (such as privatization of land and water wells) and are cutting on distributive culture to help the poorer sections of society. The cumulative outcome of all these processes is leading to a higher rate of pastoral drop-outs and an increase in the wealth accumulated in higher wealth tiers. The paper also focuses on the regional dimension of the trade, and the impacts of the Arab Spring on dynamics of livestock commercialization in the Horn of Africa.