Positivity in the crypto markets remains strong despite the most recent turmoil on the charts. This is especially true for ETH’s community, as the altcoin has seen more than 35% added to its price over the past 30 days.
But who are the biggest players making the Ethereum trade and driving ETH prices ever higher?
ETH Gains Lag Behind BTC Since 2022
In chemical science, ether is a humor, and the better part of good humor is excellent timing.
Over most 30-day periods in the past 12 months, crypto investors would have been better off holding Bitcoin if their goal was to achieve a higher 30-day ROI from their investment.
The trailing 12-month return on investment for BTC is +75% compared to ETH’s +19% over the same period. Some Ethereum holders have been wondering what’s up with its market action compared to Bitcoin’s.
In large part, the Ethereum base layer, by design, sacrificed capital inflows over the past 12 months to low-fee Layer 2 Ethereum networks and capital inflows to their currencies.
These include, among some of the largest by total market cap, Mantle (MNT), POL (POL), Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP), and Starknet (STRK).
It’s like trying to inflate a balloon, but there’s a vent with extra air going into a bunch of other balloons first before you get enough air pressure to keep inflating the main balloon.
To top that off, Ethereum is a very big balloon, clocking August 2nd at $468 billion in market capitalization on a fascinating multi-year trend line since 2015 for long-term saver investors.
That said, here are four bullish portents that the sign of ETH is rising in the air:
1. Ethereum Roars Back In Multi-Billion Dollar Wall Street Frenzy
A month into Q3, the pressure from inflows to the Ether economy has finally built up to the point of pushing its price back up and really moving the needle.
Ethereum’s phenomenal July price gains show demand has grown broad and deep enough to overcome the massive planned leakage of inflows to Ethereum Layer 2s.
That’s got the bulls posting wild price predictions, like BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, who said, “Ether = $10,000” on Jul. 22. He also made these comments in a post on his Medium blog:
“Ever since Solana rose from the FTX ashes from $7 to $280, Ether has been the most hated large-cap crypto. No more; the Western institutional investor class, whose chief cheerleader is Tom Lee, loves Ether. Buy first, ask questions later.”
2. Ethereum ETFs Blowout Record Inflows
Iconic Wall Street mascot Gordon Gekko once said, “Greed is good.”
A massive cohort on Wall Street is already aware of blockchain’s usefulness and has become addicted to Bitcoin and Ether returns in 2025. They’ve been backing up the entire boat and loading up on Ether tokens through ETFs, custody services, and on-chain developments.
Capital inflows to buy Ethereum ETFs shattered a record in July as feverish demand on Wall Street picked up pace. Ether ETFs attracted $2.12 billion in a week in mid-July and continued to ramp up huge sums in the weeks that followed, despite the relative market slowdown.
Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Investments, wrote on July 22 a note outlining the “Ethereum Demand Shock,” which is pumping ETH prices up with all this ROI-hungry capital from Wall Street ETF buyers and a bevy of new Ether corporate treasury companies with publicly traded shares on the US stock market.
3. SharpLink Gaming Stakes Hundreds of Millions in ETH
This online sports betting company, based in Minneapolis and traded on Nasdaq, has a business model ripe for disruption by blockchain solutions to create fairness and security for online players.
Following up on Strategy, Inc.’s BTC treasury campaign, SharpLink had acquired 188,478 ETH by June 25. That would be worth nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars a month later.
After that, over five days in mid-July, SharpLink took another whale-sized corporate bite out of the Ethereum supply. The online sports betting specialists locked in 60,582 ETH worth some $180 million.
Meanwhile, Wall Street rewarded the company for the move, jolting its stock by 17% in under 24 hours.
By Jul. 16, SharpLink Gaming had locked in 280,000 ETH, worth around $900 million, throwing a supply pinch, rallying Ether bulls, and drastically changing the calculus for Ether price valuations. Its holdings continue to increase almost daily and stand at over 480,000 ETH as of August 3.
The company says it’s staking all of that and generating hundreds of thousands of dollars weekly in yields by holding its Ether staked.
4. Bitmine’s $250 Million and Growing Ether Fund
In addition to SharpLink Gaming, there’s Las Vegas-based Bitmine Immersion Technologies, a US blockchain firm that recently pivoted to buying, holding, and staking ETH.
They brought in Tom Lee, the FundStrat executive who used to appear on CNBC during the pandemic and say that Bitcoin would eventually reach $1 million. At the same time, the other commentators smiled and nodded.
To start off July, Bitmine launched a $250 million corporate Ether treasury, and its stock soared 3,000% in almost no time, rising from the penny bin to above $135 a share.
