Ethereum is once again at the center of market attention — its price has risen above $4740, just $200 below the historical peak of 2021. According to Coin Metrics, the increase exceeded 5%, and experts predict further upward movement.

Specialists at Standard Chartered note a sharp increase in institutional demand: since early June, large investors have bought about 3.8% of the total ETH supply. This is nearly twice as fast as with Bitcoin. Only two companies — BitMine Immersion Technologies and SharpLink Gaming — have accumulated over 2.3 million ETH in just a few months.

Tom Lee from Fundstrat believes Ethereum is the key asset for the next decade:

"Stablecoins have become for the crypto market what ChatGPT is for AI. Add to this the GENIUS Act and the launch of the SEC blockchain initiative — and we are actually seeing Wall Street moving towards Ethereum."

Optimism is also supported by Jeff Kendrick from Standard Chartered: he raised his ETH forecast to $7500 by the end of this year and to $25,000 by the end of 2028. In his opinion, interest in the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is growing due to ETFs, updates to the technical roadmap, new legislation for stablecoins in the US, and the activity of corporate treasuries.

The GENIUS Act, passed in July by the Trump administration, created a federal framework for stablecoins, which could significantly increase demand for Ethereum, as most of these assets operate within its network. Analysts expect the capitalization of stablecoins to rise to $2 trillion by 2028, which would bring Ethereum new revenue from fees and further solidify its dominance in DeFi (where over 65% of TVL is currently concentrated).

The crypto direction is also supported by President Donald Trump's initiative to create a US Strategic Crypto Reserve, which includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana, and Cardano. Trump himself stated that he plans to make the US the "crypto capital of the world."