How ethereum climbed to a five-month high, reclaiming the $3,000 level
With spot ethereum ETFs recording their second-highest daily inflows and the network leading in on-chain flows, some argue ethereum is quietly taking center stage.
Ethereum is rallying.
The blockchain’s native cryptocurrency has climbed 6% in the last 24 hours and 18% in the past seven days to cross $3,000 for the first time since February in the early hours of July 11.
“ETH price going up is great for us, because everything is ETH beta,” Mike Silagadze, the CEO of dominant restaking protocol EtherFi, told Sherwood News.
“ETH beta” refers to tokens correlating to the price of ethereum and acting as leveraged play. In other words, if ethereum jumps, tokens in the ecosystem theoretically will see a larger uptick. For example, frog-based meme coin Pepe and the governance token for layer 2 network Arbitrum have both increased roughly 14% in the last 24 hours, more than ethereum’s ongoing rally.
Ethereum trading activity has picked up as well, with investors generating $50 billion in 24-hour volume, multiples higher than the same period last week when the figure was under $14 billion, per CoinGecko.
As a result of ethereum’s jump, more than $217 million in ethereum short positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours, CoinGlass data shows. “Most of the shorts have been wiped out and they [short traders] would be very brave to get back in now with conviction when the market is like this,” Adam Morgan McCarthy, a senior research analyst at market data provider Kaiko, said.
“Considering that positioning is pretty neutral right now, I’m leaning toward more chance of further moves higher,” he told Sherwood.
Chaos Labs founder and CEO Omer Goldberg, citing data from The Block, highlighted how ethereum futures trading volume has reached parity with BTC, at roughly $44 billion. Goldberg said this suggests “a more sustained recalibration of market attention toward ethereum.”
The price action comes as US spot ethereum ETFs recorded their second-highest daily inflows on Thursday, at $383 million, since their inception last year, data from investment research platform SoSoValue shows. Additionally, ethereum’s network is leading in on-chain net flows across all major blockchains on a three-month and year-to-date scale, according to analytics firm Artemis.
Artemis data scientist Andrew Van Aken told Sherwood that ethereum virtual machine chains have benefited from increased trading on decentralized exchanges as Uniswap V3 consistently ranks as a top venue for trading in the past month.
“When ‘economic activity’ (DEX trading, stablecoin activity, assets in general) start to pick up and move more, the price tends to follow. It’s almost as if the ethereum economy is gaining steam,” Van Aken said.
The rally follows hot off the heels of crypto treasury companies raising capital to scoop up loads of ethereum, including BitMine Immersion Technologies and BTCS. On Friday, the Ethereum Foundation announced the sale of $25.7 million worth of tokens to SharpLink Gaming, which counts ethereum cofounder Joseph Lubin as its board’s chairman. Lubin said this week on CNBC Television that “we’re able to acquire tens of millions of dollars in ether a day.”
Wave Digital Assets CEO David Siemer told Sherwood, “The sustained nature of these institutional flows, combined with the supply shock created by staking and ETF custody requirements, establishes a higher price floor supported by fundamental demand rather than speculative positioning.”
Despite ethereum outperforming bitcoin on a 24-hour interval, the orange coin has continued to set new all-time highs, while ethereum is still roughly 40% away from its record price set in 2021.
“It’s strange and one year on from ETH ETFs launching people are still scratching their heads as to why ETH is not performing,” McCarthy said, but adds that the explanation is straightforward. “BTC is sucking all the oxygen out of the room. It’s impossible to look beyond BTC right now, and as new investors enter the market through ETFs, why would they look further out the risk curve when BTC is consistently setting new records?”
Chaos Labs’ Goldberg argues ethereum is quietly reclaiming center stage, though, pointing to on-chain capital inflows, institutional positioning, and derivative traders favoring ethereum volume. “This may be the early innings of a sustained ETH-led regime, especially if macro or regulatory catalysts further tilt the risk-reward calculus,” he added.
