Why This Could Be Ethereum's Strongest Cycle Yet

In brief

Ethereum rose above $4,600 on Friday, driven by institutional accumulation from treasury companies and ETF inflows.
CryptoQuant reports a surge in staking activity, including one whale moving $645 million in ETH specifically to stake it.
73% of traders on prediction market Myriad now bet ETH will reach $5,000, up from 61% at the week’s start.

Ethereum could be headed for its strongest cycle yet, according to analysts at CryptoQuant.

At the time of writing, Ethereum has been changing hands for $4,603 after having gained nearly 4% in the past day and over 7% compared to this time last week, according to crypto price aggregator CoinGecko.

CryptoQuant Head of Research Julio Moreno credits institutional demand—from treasury companies and spot ETFs—and a steep uptick in staking as primary drivers boosting the price of ETH.

“This synchronized accumulation indicates that Ethereum is increasingly viewed as a long-term strategic asset by large capital allocators, similar to Bitcoin’s trajectory post-ETF approval,” Moreno wrote. “This level of institutional endorsement provides a robust long-term tailwind for Ethereum’s price and perceived legitimacy.”

It’s normal during big bull runs to see whales wake up and sell at least a portion of their holdings to take profits. After all, multi-year whales are usually sitting on substantial paper profits. But despite the bullish price action waking a few Ethereum whales, several woke up to buy more—and at least one large scale holder moved $645 million in ETH so they could stake it.

“Meanwhile, exchange inflows have declined, easing selling pressure, but realized price bands indicate ETH is approaching historically significant price resistance,” he wrote in a report shared with Decrypt, adding that “consolidation or correction is likely unless ETH decisively breaks above this band.”

Momentum is building among users on Myriad, a prediction market owned by Decrypt’s parent company DASTAN, that Ethereum will surge to $5,000 before it pulls back to $3,500. Optimists who think ETH will reach $5,000 have grown from about 61% at the start of the week to 73% at the time of writing. Over the same period, Ethereum’s price has increased by about 7%.

There are also signs that futures traders are feeling more certain of where ETH could be headed.

Open interest, which is a measure of outstanding futures and options contracts on derivatives exchanges, has increased 3.4% in the past day. Total ETH open interest now sits at $62.45 billion, according to crypto analytics platform CoinGlass.