Ethereum price is hitting new all-time highs, but will $15,000 be the top?

Ethereum (ETH) is poised to hit a new all-time high in the coming days after rising to a year-to-date high of $4,108 on December 16.

ETH price rose 8% in the past week. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is up 28% in the past 30 days and 82% over the past year.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of Ethereum is trading at $4,000, about 18% below its all-time high of $4,891 set on November 26, 2021.

Combined with ETH’s performance on December 17th, daily trading volume increased by 30% and now stands at $42 billion, suggesting that this rally is gaining momentum.

But with Ether investment products continuing to see inflows along with other fundamentals and on-chain indicators, how high can the price go?

Reduction in ETH supply on exchanges

One factor supporting Ether’s upward trend is reducing supply on exchanges. ETH balances on exchanges have fallen nearly 10% over the past year to 9.2 million ETH, the lowest in 8.5 years, according to data from on-chain market intelligence firm CryptoQuant.

Net flows to and from exchanges show a sharp decline since October 2023, when withdrawals from trading platforms began to surge. This decline is accompanied by a 73% rise in the price of Ethereum over the same period.

The number of Ethereum whales increases

The decline in supply on exchanges can be partly explained by the surge in accumulation by large holders over the past few weeks.

In particular, whale wallet holdings have reached an all-time high, accounting for approximately 57% of all circulating ETH.

“There are currently 104 whale wallets holding at least 100,000 Ethereum,” Santiment wrote in a post to X on December 16. Total holdings are approximately $333 billion.

Wallets holding between 10 ETH and 100,000 ETH hit a historic low of 33.5%, while the supply ratio of wallets holding less than 100 ETH was just 9.19%, the lowest in almost four years, the analytics firm added.

“Ethereum’s largest group of over 100,000 whales own an all-time high of 83.81 million tokens, with the asset briefly returning a market value of over $4,000.”

This means that whales were not sold during the recent rally and continued to accumulate. This could be a long-term bullish sign, especially if this trend continues.

Meanwhile, the daily average of new Ethereum addresses exceeded 130,200 in December, the highest in eight months, according to Santiment.

Additionally, along with Ether’s bullish performance, total open interest (OI) in derivatives markets increased to an all-time high from 9.8 billion ETH on November 5 to 20.7 billion ETH on December 17.

The chart above shows that Ether’s OI has increased by 24% over the last 7 days. This suggests increased demand for leveraged ETH positions and new money flowing into the market as a whole.

Institutional demand for Ether products surges.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-based spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been recording positive inflows every day since November 22nd.

relevant: As Bitcoin inches towards all-time highs, ETH, LINK, AAVE, and BGB move higher.

Investment products recorded their biggest inflow day ever on December 5, with inflows of over $428 million. The Spot Ether ETF recorded cumulative inflows of $854.8 million for the week ending December 13.

Overall, Ether exchange-traded products (ETPs) continue to gain momentum, with new inflows into various Ether-based ETPs for the seventh straight week, totaling $3.7 billion.

Ether ETPs tracked by CoinShares, including spot Ether ETFs, provide exposure to underlying assets such as market indices or individual investments.

James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, said this signals a “dramatic improvement” in investor sentiment for ETH.

“Ethereum has recorded $1 billion in inflows for seven consecutive weeks, with sentiment improving dramatically with total inflows of $3.7 billion over these seven weeks.”

If institutional sentiment continues to rise, ETH price is likely to surge towards its November 2021 all-time high in the coming days.

Analysts have set a 5-digit target for ETH price.

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, ETH is fighting to turn the key $4,000 resistance level into new support as a stepping stone towards new all-time highs.

“The fight for $4,000 continues,” prominent cryptocurrency analyst Jelle wrote on X on December 17, adding, “If we break this, all bets are off.”

Fellow analyst Venturefounder said ETH has been consolidating into a triangle for over three years, setting the stage for a “new paradigm.”

The analyst noted a two-week candle chart that forms part of a seven-year consolidation that he expects will result in an Ether price target above $15,000.

“Base case: Ethereum is likely to repeat the impulsive breakout it did in 2016-2017 to push towards a new ATH. Target price: $15,937 by May 2025”

“We will have a cycle similar to 2017 with a lot of upside,” said Michaell van de Poppe, founder of MN Capital, setting a cycle high for ETH between $15,000 and $25,000.

However, other established cryptocurrency market participants are pursuing more conservative price targets. VanEck predicted that the price of Ethereum will reach $6,000 and Bitcoin (BTC) will reach $180,000 in 2025.

Bitwise Asset Management predicts that Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana (SOL) will reach $200,000, $7,000, and $750, respectively, in 2025.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. All investment and trading activities involve risk and readers should conduct their own research when making any decisions.