Institutional funds pouring in have become a key driver, with SharpLink spending $64 million to purchase Ether.
Ethereum has recently welcomed several major positive news, the most notable being the large influx of institutional funds. According to data from Arkham Intelligence, SharpLink Gaming purchased 21,487 Ether in one go on July 12, with a total value of $64.26 million. The company purchased 14,693 Ether ($43.89 million) from Galaxy Digital and 6,804 Ether ($20.37 million) from Coinbase Prime.
Source: Arkham Intelligence SharpLink Gaming purchased 21,487 Ether in one go on July 12.
More notably, SharpLink directly purchased 10,000 Ether from the Ethereum Foundation the day before, with a transaction value of $25.7 million, marking the first time a publicly listed company has directly purchased tokens from a core governance body of a protocol. In total, the company purchased 31,487 Ether within two days, showing its strong confidence in Ethereum's long-term development.
Joseph Lubin, Chairman of SharpLink and co-founder of Ethereum, emphasized that the company's Ether acquisition is a strategic decision rather than a short-term trade.
He stated: 'This is not a trade, but a commitment. SharpLink is acquiring, staking, and re-staking Ether as a responsible industry manager, removing supply from circulation to strengthen the health of the Ethereum ecosystem.'
In addition, Bitcoin mining company BTC Digital also announced that it is transferring $1 million of corporate cash into Ether reserves, referring to it as the new 'digital gold.' The company's CEO, Siguang Peng, stated that Ethereum has become the basis for on-chain dollar settlements and value transfers, and the company is actively preparing for decentralized finance, stablecoin issuance, and asset tokenization.
Technical upgrades release significant signals, zero-knowledge proof integration enhances competitiveness.
The technical upgrade plan recently released by the Ethereum Foundation has also injected confidence into the market. The foundation announced plans to deploy Layer 1 zkEVM within a year as part of a full transition to zero-knowledge proofs.
According to Ethereum researcher Sophia Gold, this proposal aims to establish an instant proof standard, including a delay time of less than 10 seconds, proof size of less than 300 KiB, and 128-bit security.
The foundation believes this integration will significantly enhance Ethereum's scalability, security, and censorship resistance while making the protocol itself more 'ZK-friendly.' Ethereum shows a long-term vision: to establish a zero-knowledge proof that touches every aspect of the blockchain, from consensus signature aggregation to client-driven privacy features.
While this technical upgrade may pose challenges to independent ZK proof startups, the Ethereum Foundation stated that by rallying zkVM projects toward a common 'instant proof' goal, it actually opens the door for industry-level collaboration rather than stifling competition. This move will establish Ethereum's leadership position in the zero-knowledge technology industry and further solidify its core position in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Price breaks through key resistance, profit-taking pressure tests $3,000 support.
As of the time of writing, the current trading price of Ethereum is $3,021. After five months of waiting, Ethereum has finally broken through the important $3,000 barrier, but the challenge is whether it can establish $3,000 as a support level.
Source: TradingView After five months of waiting, Ethereum has finally broken through the important $3,000 barrier.
However, market data shows that profit-taking pressure is increasing. According to Santiment data, the realized profit and loss metric on the Ethereum network has surged to $1.36 billion, marking the largest increase since December 2022. The selling pressure observed in the past 24 hours is the highest in 31 months, indicating that many investors are taking profits from the recent price increases.
Historical experience shows that such large-scale sell-offs usually lead to price corrections. Given the current scale of selling activities, investors should remain cautious, as this may indicate a short-term pullback in Ethereum prices.
However, according to Glassnode's cost basis analysis of Ethereum, $2,500 has become a strong accumulation zone. Over 3.45 million Ether's cost basis is close to this level, providing important support for the token. Since Ethereum recently rebounded from $2,533, this level has become an important launchpad for the current upward trend.
Multiple positive factors converge, future developments still need to be observed.
If profit-taking pressure continues to mount, the price of Ethereum may fall back below $3,000. The 19% increase this week could be offset, but it is expected that Ether will hold above $2,495, thanks to the strong support established at the $2,500 level. However, this would extend the waiting time for Ethereum to climb back above $3,000 to the third quarter.
Conversely, if Bitcoin's upward trend continues and overall market conditions remain bullish, turning $3,000 into a support level could propel Ethereum toward the next resistance level of $3,530. This would indicate that the current bullish momentum remains intact.
According to data from Strategic ETH Reserve, the currently known Ethereum inventory (including decentralized autonomous organizations, Layer 2 networks, and public trading companies) holds a total of over 1.34 million Ether.
Source: Strategic ETH Reserve The currently known Ethereum inventory (including decentralized autonomous organizations, Layer 2 networks, and public trading companies) holds a total of over 1.34 million Ether.
With the increase in funds flowing into Ethereum ETFs, the resurgence of inventory priced in Ether, and renewed attention to native financial protocols, Ethereum is welcoming a convergence of multiple positive factors.
These developments reflect the growing interest of enterprises in Ether as a reserve asset, further indicating the changing role of digital assets in institutional portfolios. However, in the face of profit-taking pressure and technical challenges, it remains to be seen whether Ethereum can solidly hold above $3,000 and continue to break through upward, requiring close observation of subsequent market performance.
'Ethereum is just getting started! Can these several positive news keep Ether steady at $3,000?' This article was first published in 'Crypto City.'
