The leading altcoin Ethereum is trading near the resistance at $3,0000, and this is significant. It shows that market players, especially institutional investors, whales, and traders, are making huge bets on the long-term potential of the second-largest cryptocurrency.
Record Futures Volume Fuel Ethereum’s Bullish Momentum
The technical indicators of ETH are quite positive, the volume of transactions is very high, and the capital flows are huge due to the interest from traditional finance. BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, is leading this revived interest.
The company recently carried out a $300.9 million Ethereum purchase, which marked its highest ETH investment yet. This single action has sparked widespread attention, reinforcing the growing belief that Ethereum is becoming the primary asset of interest for institutions.
At the same time, Ethereum futures trading volume has exploded. For the first time in months, ETH futures volume surpassed that of Bitcoin.
Glassnode reported that Ethereum recorded futures volume worth $62.1 billion compared to the $61.7 billion reported by Bitcoin. Ethereum futures interest also skyrocketed to $26 billion in one day, representing a 66.95% increase.
It implies that there’s growing speculative interest and bullish enthusiasm about Ethereum’s performance. At the same time, large wallets (whales) are also accumulating ETH very fast.
ETH Trades Near $3,000 Following Whale Accumulation and Bullish Technicals
The number of wallets containing more than 10,000 ETH has grown by 9.3% since October 2024. These wallets have increased the number of ETH they hold to 41.06 million.
Their buying rate was almost twice as much as the one in the middle of 2022, when Ethereum increased in value by 100%. This form of aggressive purchases reflects growing optimism about the long-term prospects of ETH.
Not only is ETH about to break the psychological level of $3000, but this bullish development is backed by trading indicators. Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 73.09 is a very strong momentum, but it does not indicate overbought yet.
Short-term technicals are also in alignment. The 7-day simple moving average of ETH is above its average value over the past 30 days. This trend usually affirms a continued price uptrend in the short term.
Ethereum Inflows and Pectra Upgrade Boost Bullish Outlook
Volume is also growing continuously, which is an indication that more traders on the buy side are joining the market. Another reason for the rally is that Ethereum ETFs are experiencing an all-time high in inflows.
On-chain data showed that more than $383 million in ETH moved into ETF products on Thursday. This is the second-biggest ETH ETF inflow in a day. Such numbers indicate the rising interest of conventional investors in regulated exposure to cryptocurrencies.
Still, Arthur Hayes, former chief executive officer of BitMEX, believes that Ethereum will lead a stronger rally for the other altcoins. He also forecasts that Ethereum price might reach up to $10,000 because of the bullish macro environment and the increased institutional buys.
Hayes considers Ethereum as the platform that is not only for smart-contract innovation anymore, but is becoming treasury-grade. The recent Ethereum Petra upgrade, which improved the network’s enhanced scalability and efficiency, also contributed to the gains.
Shifting Institutional Portfolios Confirm ETH’s Treasury Asset Status
Hayes insists that the upgraded version demonstrates the technological relevance of Ethereum, which makes it more investment-worthy. He is also of the opinion that future economic policies, such as tariffs that might be implemented by President Trump and the Treasury initiatives, would continue to drive additional capital into crypto markets.
His perspective is not a theory, as companies are accumulating ETH massively. Recently, Nasdaq-listed GameSquare has invested $100 million into Ethereum.
In addition, SharpLink Gaming bought more than 205,000 ETH within a month, making it the biggest corporate holder of ETH. These actions indicate that Ethereum is becoming an accepted treasury asset by companies in the public sector.
Besides, on-chain metrics have revealed that Ethereum currently comprises more than 90% of crypto holdings by institutions. It shows a shift from Bitcoin, which has usually been the dominant crypto in institutions’ portfolios.
