Click to join Xiao Ma's internal chat room
After Bitcoin's continuous 'three consecutive positives', today saw a consolidation, with many altcoins that hadn't risen much diving in tandem. The industry that had been rising gradually has returned to square one. Notably, ETH shows significant signs of not following Bitcoin. Recently, many institutions have expressed optimism for ETH, which is a major reason for its good performance this time. Currently, the total amount held by the top 50 institutions treating ETH as a strategic reserve has reached 1.34 million, equivalent to about $4 billion based on current market cap. In particular, SharpLink Gaming holds 280,000 ETH, surpassing the Ethereum Foundation (holding 242,500 ETH) to become the largest holder of ETH.
In the historical halving market of cryptocurrencies, both Bitcoin and ETH have led the market's gains, but this time ETH's performance has been disappointing. From $1200 to $3000, a cumulative increase of only 1.5 times, while Bitcoin soared from a low of $16,500 to about $122,000, with an increase of over 7 times. The reason may also be that ETH's pullback depth was insufficient, which led to the feeling that the subsequent rise didn't seem to increase much.
Optimistically, ETH this round is expected to surge to the $6000-$8000 range. Once ETH enters an independent upward trend, other coins in the E-chain ecosystem will also rebound, potentially leading to a sector rotation effect in other public chains. At that point, the altcoin market will truly begin.
In the short term, ETH has already reached 3164 today, which is really strong. ETH should break above 3300 soon, and ETH's strong rise indicates that the altcoin season is coming. Pay more attention to UNI, LINK, AVAX, AAVE, SSV, ENA, JUP, CRV, ETHFI, INJ; these are all part of the DEFI ecosystem. Once ETH rises, it becomes the industry's barometer, so stay alert and pay attention to altcoins recently.
You should know that the altcoin season isn't about a sudden surge of 100 coins in one day; that's the climax. Currently, it's a 'brewing period,' characterized by:
▶ Big brother (BTC) moves sideways
▶ Younger brothers (some altcoins) start to explode in batches
▶ Transaction volume structure evolves from concentration to diffusion
▶ Sector rotation starts to have rhythm—today's narrative rotation, tomorrow's public chain or track coins.
ETH is about to ignite the altcoins in the Ethereum ecosystem! These potential coins can be positioned for a breakout!
ETH Layer2 Track
Layer2 is the accelerator for ETH to become the 'global computer', supported by high TPS and low GAS fees to sustain the entire ecosystem. The three leaders ARB, OP, and STRK have market caps exceeding $10 billion, but second-tier projects like METIS and IMX may perform even better, especially IMX in the game chain direction, which has significant upside potential.
ETH Staking/Re-staking Track
After the Shanghai upgrade, staking services have completely taken off. LDO is the leader in staking, with the highest TVL across the network, but its circulating market cap is only $800 million, clearly undervalued compared to the $10 billion FDV! SSV, as the core infrastructure for distributed validation, has significant long-term value. The newly re-staking protocol EIGEN could become a dark horse, but its technical implementation needs close monitoring.
ETH's established DeFi Track
DeFi was the king of the last bull market; now it's mature but lacks innovation. Leading tokens like UNI and AAVE are suitable as a base, stable growth but don't expect to get rich quickly. Niche protocols like CRV and MKR have poor liquidity, be cautious!
ETH Meme Track
In this bull market, Meme coins are ridiculously strong. PEPE and NEIRO can be played with a small amount for sentiment, but stop-loss lines must be set; pure gambling should be avoided.
Other potential projects
PENDLE, this yield separation protocol, has been performing very well recently, with both TVL and token price soaring, but the product's complexity might deter newcomers; sustainability will depend on whether users buy in. It is a relatively innovative ETH DEFI project.
