Ethereum (ETH) surged to $3,500 on Thursday, the highest since January 7, thanks to increased network activity and continuous inflows into Ethereum spot ETFs.
Record ETF inflows push ETH price to a six-month high.
Ether has risen more than 10% in the past 24 hours and 25% in the past seven days, reaching a six-month high of $3,620.
The price performance of Ether is being supported by strong demand from institutional investors, with inflows into ETH spot ETF funds reaching a record high of $727 million on Wednesday.
"Ethereum's surpassing the $3,400 mark is not only strongly supported by retail investors," analyst Blazey Crypto said in a post on X on Thursday, adding:
"Large capital is flowing in. Over $726 million has poured into ETH spot ETFs in just one day, with half of that coming from BlackRock."
"This is a huge number," Mikybull Crypto said, noting that this is the largest inflow since ETH spot ETFs launched on July 23, 2024.
ETH spot ETFs have attracted over $1.76 billion in just the past 5 days, with ETF issuers currently holding 4% of the total ETH supply.
High network activity, increasing TVL.
According to data from Nansen, the strength of ETH's price is reflected in on-chain activity, with the number of active Ethereum addresses increasing by 9.4% in the past 30 days and 2% in the past 24 hours, reaching 1.49 million on Thursday. The number of daily active addresses also increased by 6.7% in 24 hours, reaching 463,880.
Furthermore, weekly network fees on Ethereum have increased by 139% to $14 million this week. On a daily timeframe, fees have risen over 475% since July 5, reaching $3.11 million on Thursday.
Higher network fees not only reflect the increasing demand for ETH but also stimulate the demand for layer-2 solutions and DApps, thereby increasing the total value locked (TVL) on Ethereum as more assets are staked or used in DeFi.
According to DefiLlama, Ethereum's TVL has increased by over 36% in 3 weeks, from $57.2 billion on June 23 to a 3-year high of $78.2 billion on Thursday.
Ethereum remains the leading project in terms of TVL with a market dominance rate of 58%. Meanwhile, Solana's market share is 7.2% and BNB Chain accounts for 5% among layer-1 chains.
The RSI indicator signals that ETH price is targeting $10,000.
Ether's three-week chart shows the Relative Strength Index (RSI) signaling 'buy' in April when it reached 40.
In the past, the RSI has bottomed around this level before ETH price surged.
Previous confirmations from this indicator have pushed ETH up by 1,360% and 350% in 2021 and 2023-2024, respectively.
In April, analyst Mikybull Crypto warned about this signal, stating that it is a 'rare buy signal that should not be ignored.'
According to Mikybull Crypto, Ether's price could peak between $7,000 and $10,000 when the RSI indicator reaches the upper range.
"The upper range target is $7,000 - $10,000."
Other analysts believe that ETH is likely to surpass $10,000 this year based on technical analysis, the bullish breakout of the ETH/BTC pair, institutional demand through ETFs, and Ethereum fund management companies.
