Ethereum surged through the $3,000 level for the first time since April 2022 as speculative flows continued into cryptocurrencies.
ETHUSD – Daily Chart
ETH is now trading above $3,200; the next resistance level will be $3,500.
Ethereum’s price has been boosted by whale activity, with large investors buying $500 million of supply in only 24 hours over the weekend. Sentiments Supply Held by Top Addresses data showed that the top 1,000 ETH wallets held a cumulative opening balance of 69.51 million ETH on Friday. But that figure grew by 170,000 ETH over the weekend, bringing the cumulative balance to 69.68 million ETH.
Analysts are looking at the coming Ethereum Dencun upgrade, scheduled for March, as something that can add to the attractiveness of Ethereum. A recent research report from digital asset firm Grayscale highlighted the project’s plans to become a more secure and scalable blockchain for decentralised applications (dApps).
Grayscale said the upgrade will be a strategic move to boost Ethereum’s scalability while preserving its security. The company also noted that Ethereum 2.0 has increased scaling projects such as Optimism and Arbitron. Those projects have attracted investors to their blockchains and helped to build ETH users.
Cryptocurrencies are being boosted by investment flows going into the Bitcoin ETFs. The BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust saw more than $1.3 billion in shares trading in one day, the highest level ever, and BTC prices surged past the $57,000 mark.
“The move higher in bitcoin earlier Monday spurred sizable activity in the US-based spot bitcoin ETFs, with the group (ex-Grayscale GBTC) posting a record-high $2.4 billion in trading volume,” CoinDesk said. “As for GBTC, it saw its smallest one-day outflow of bitcoin since the Jan. 11 launch of the spot ETFs, the fund shedding just 921 tokens.”
The rally in Nasdaq stocks has added to the market’s positive sentiment. However, it seems reminiscent of 2021, when Bitcoin and the crypto market topped with the Nasdaq. That led to a crypto bear market, and there is a risk that it will happen again if an adverse market event arrives.