While Ethereum (ETH) has once again failed to break the stubborn $4,000 resistance level, BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF has quietly accumulated over $1 million of ETH. This milestone reflects strong institutional demand for Ethereum despite price performance remaining weak in 2024.
Institutional interest in Ethereum is increasing.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by year-to-date (YTD) market capitalization, has risen 43% from around $2,280 on January 1st to $3,283 at the time of this writing. While this is noteworthy, ETH’s performance has been overshadowed by other cryptocurrencies such as XRP, Solana (SOL), and SUI, which have recorded much higher gains over the same period.
However, Ethereum has key advantages over most altcoins. This means direct access to institutional investors through a regulated ETF, similar to Bitcoin’s position in the market. Recently mail At X, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Dan Gambardello highlighted that BlackRock’s Ethereum ETF holdings have now surpassed 1 million ETH.
Gambardello noted that with ETH consolidating below its all-time high (ATH) and increasing institutional interest, the stage is set for a potential altcoin season “unlike anything we’ve ever seen.” Recent ETH ETF inflow data appears to support this outlook.
According to data SoSoValue’s US spot ETH ETF has seen net inflows for the fourth week in a row, attracting more than $2 billion in capital. The total net assets held by all U.S. spot ETH ETFs amount to $12.15 billion, or nearly 3% of Ethereum’s total market capitalization.
Cryptocurrency analysts are optimistic that Ethereum, the leading smart contract platform, will succeed. road A new ATH is reached. For example, CryptosRus notes that historically, Ethereum has seen bullish price action in the first four months of the next year following the US presidential election.
The chart below shows that ETH rebounded significantly during the first quarter of 2017 following the 2016 US election. Following the 2020 election, a similar pattern was observed in 2021, with Ethereum recording four consecutive weeks of price gains.
From a technical perspective, cryptocurrency analyst @CryptoPoseidonn shared an 8-hour ETH chart, suggesting that ETH may bottom near the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), shown in green. The analyst said:
It was the first decline since the last big rally and fears were at an all-time high. I believe this is where we print higher lows. Drops like this are an opportunity to increase spot exposure.
Is the market correction nearing its end?
The overall cryptocurrency market cap has decreased from $3.9 trillion on December 16 to $3.4 trillion at the time of writing. This amounts to a loss of $500 billion in just one week. According to data from Coinglass, more than $289 million was liquidated in the last 24 hours alone.
Despite this downturn, seasoned cryptocurrency analyst Pentoshi said: suggested The 3-day chart shows that this crash could serve as a retest of the previous cryptocurrency market capitalization ATH recorded in November 2022. If so, this level could become the basis for the next rally.
However, not all analysts are optimistic in the near term. Recently famous cryptocurrency entrepreneur Arthur Hayes warned A potential market downturn is expected around Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. At press time, ETH is trading at $3,283, up 1.2% over the last 24 hours.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, X and chart from TradingView.com