Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain that turned 10, just had its best July performance in three years.
The second largest cryptocurrency climbed more than 50% in July, peaking at $3,940 before easing below $3,800 towards the end of the month.
The last time ETH rose this much in a single month was July 2022, rebounding from the depths of the crypto crash marked by high-profile implosions of Terra-Luna, Three Arrows Capital and Celsius.
This time, the rally has a different driver with money pouring in from capital markets.
U.S.-listed spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) absorbed $5.4 billion of net inflows through the month, their strongest streak since the products debuted last year, SoSoValue data shows.
Corporate balance sheets are also following suit. As part of the digital asset treasury frenzy, public companies have gobbled up $6.2 billion worth of ETH, according to data gathered by CEX.io. Tom Lee’s Bitmine and Joseph Lubin’s SharpLink are the two most notable players, but the latest entrants, like ETHZilla and Ether Machine, have already raised large sums of capital from institutions to deploy for asset purchases.
The price action came hand-in-hand with a positive narrative shift, positioning ETH as a key proxy for the booming stablecoin and tokenization market.
With the new U.S. rules for stablecoins under the Genius Act and Ethereum hosting more than half of the $250 billion stablecoin supply, that clarity could cement its role as the backbone of dollar-pegged tokens.
Price-wise, ETH is currently facing resistance at $4,000, where multiple attempts to break higher failed last year. The crypto market is also entering a historically quiet phase, which could see the rally cool off in a consolidation phase.
Still, ETH might have some “juice in the tank” to push as high as $4,700 as part of its current run, well-followed crypto investor Bob Loukas said in an X post.