Ethereum Breaks $4,300, Now, When Is $10,000?

This weekend, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, caught the market’s attention as it flashed by the $4,000 mark and then briefly surpassed the $4,300 level. Last time, ETH was seen at this price point in December 2024 and before that in December 2021.

Ethereum reached an all-time high of $4,891 four years ago – on November 16, 2021. Since then, the lowest level it has reached was $1,066 in early February 2022. This makes the current price jump to $4,300 all the more notable and significant not only for Ethereum but for the whole altcoin market.

This time, the momentum behind the Ethereum price spike seems stronger and powered by more drivers than in previous market cycles. For many weeks, Ethereum had been steadily growing, building bullish pressure and now the lid blew off just in one rapid price movement.

Treasury companies and ETFs consume Ethereum

One of the strongest drivers that powered Ethereum’s current surge is the mere weight of institutional money that has been flowing into the spot Ethereum ETFs. Only last week alone, those exchange-traded funds took in nearly 200,000 ETH, equal to $844,649,864.

The total inflows since their launch in January 2024 now constitutes a mind-boggling $23.384 billion. This is not speculative trading volume but it is rather long-term capital coming from pension funds, family offices, wealth managers, and other institutional investors who are now happy about having a regulated exposure to Ethereum. The money that is flowing into these funds represent investors’ confidence in Ethereum’s long-term potential as the foundation of decentralized finance, smart contracts, applications powered by this blockchain.

Along with this, many public companies have got interested in Ethereum as an asset lately and following the playbook of Michael Saylor’s Strategy and other Bitcoin accumulating companies, have been actively adding ETH to their balance sheets, building their Ethereum treasuries.

Currently, CoinGecko counts almost twenty companies that hold Ethereum on their balances. The largest one is Bitmine Immersion Technologies that holds 833,133 ETH worth $3,522,077,061.

These companies are betting on Ethereum’s unique utility and its future growth, its transaction volume, and its dominance in the sphere of tokenized assets and stablecoins – three most powerful ones run on ETH, as well as on other chains – USDT, USDC, and Ripple’s RLUSD.

Adding to the excitement that has swept through the market now, the former BitMEX CEO and its founder Arthur Hayes, has begun buying back tons of Ethereum he had sold earlier. Now he is accumulating it back at a much higher price than he sold it for. Other whales, according to analytics platform Lookonchain, are doing the same.

Crypto celebrates White House policy breakthroughs

Meanwhile, as institutional high-profile ETH accumulation is making headlines, US policy shifts are adding to the momentum, laying a stronger basis for the next phase of crypto adoption, including Ethereum.

One of the major recent developments is the passing of the Genius Act, a piece of legislation that regulates the emittance and circulation of stablecoins and allows companies to start issuing them on various chains, including Ethereum – the largest platform for stablecoins so far. This is basically a green light for businesses to start creating financial products on Ethereum. This move potentially opens the floodgates for mainstream crypto adoption through the second-largest blockchain.

Another major reason for excitement in the crypto market is that at the end of last week president Trump signed an executive order, allowing 401(k) retirement funds to start investing in risky assets, including real estate and cryptocurrencies, specifically the ones approved by the SEC – Bitcoin and Ethereum. This shift could potentially bring enormous amounts of long-term capital into the crypto market. This particular 401(k) market and other related retirement plans now constitute a total of $12.2 trillion. And a large part of this tremendous amount is gradually likely to start flowing in crypto. Just imagine the prospects.

Looking ahead: $10,000 ETH might be on horizon

Several high-profile figures in the crypto world have recently shared their forecasts on Ethereum price’s moves they expect this year. The aforementioned Arthur Hayes stated that Ethereum could rocket to $10,000 by the end of this year. Fundstrat’s partner Tom Lee also made a bullish forecast, saying that Ethereum might flip Bitcoin in terms of growth based on Ethereum’s potential utility surge and institutional sentiment.

Now, that we see massive Ethereum ETF inflows, corporate treasury accumulation, institutional investor confidence, and legal approval of crypto’s further expansion in the US, the $10,000 price target no longer seems like a fantasy but is beginning to take a real shape with odds of coming true by December 31 this year. Especially now that $4,000 has been left behind.