Author: Biteye Core Contributor @viee7227
After ten years of Ethereum, with its ups and downs, as the market heats up again, ETH's price seems to be just a step away from its historical high.
This article analyzes seven dimensions, including institutional positions and ETF trends, foundation changes, technical indicators, on-chain data, roadmap, RWA, and stablecoin rise, suggesting that Ethereum's current rally might have just begun.
I. ETH Reserve Concept Stocks
Recently, the ETH market has shown exceptionally strong buying pressure, with many listed companies and asset management institutions actively increasing their holdings, even incorporating ETH into their core financial strategies. Simultaneously, ETH reserve concept stocks have surged, becoming a new favorite in the US stock market.
The landmark event that sparked Wall Street's embrace of Ethereum was the high-profile bet by Thomas Lee, a well-known Wall Street strategist and Fundstrat co-founder, who will become Bitmine's chairman in 2025, directly driving the transformation of this former Bitcoin mining company into an Ethereum asset company. Under Lee's leadership, Bitmine quickly accumulated over 600,000 ETH positions, valued at over $3 billion, as its primary fiscal reserve asset. Inspired by his marketing, Wall Street's excitement was ignited, and many US-listed companies subsequently announced ETH purchases for asset allocation. For example, Bit Digital converted its BTC holdings to ETH, spending $172 million to acquire 100,000 ETH, now accumulating over 120,000; SharpLink Gaming currently holds about 438,000 ETH, with a total value of approximately $1.09 billion.
These actions indicate that institutional investors are treating Ethereum as a strategic reserve asset similar to Bitcoin, significantly enhancing Ethereum's market acceptance and further strengthening bullish expectations.
II. ETF
Alongside ETH's price surge, off-market funds are flooding into Ethereum ETFs.
According to SoSoValue data, on July 29th Eastern Time, Ethereum spot ETFs saw a total net inflow of $219 million, continuously net inflowing for 18 days since July 3rd. The Blackrock ETF ETHA had the highest single-day net inflow of $224 million, with its historical total net inflow reaching $9.704 billion. On July 16th, nine US Ethereum spot ETFs collectively attracted over $726 million in net inflows, creating a record since their listing last July.
In comparison, US Bitcoin ETFs have cooled down after the early-year boom, experiencing slight net outflows for several days in late July. This suggests some funds are rebalancing from the BTC sector to the ETH sector, reflecting increased institutional confidence in Ethereum's application prospects. Currently, Bitcoin ETF market value represents 6.49% of Bitcoin's total market value, while Ethereum ETFs only account for 4.71%, indicating significant room for growth in ETH ETF channel inflows.
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Source: SoSoValue
Looking forward, beyond spot ETFs, Ethereum staking yield ETFs are also in development. On July 17th, BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) officially submitted a 19b-4 filing to the SEC, intending to introduce staking functionality to its Ethereum ETF. Analysts predict the US may approve the first ETH staking ETFs in the second half of 2025. Such products will offer 3-5% annual staking yields on top of holding spot Ethereum, making them more attractive to institutions.
The most direct impact of ETFs on Ethereum is enhancing liquidity and demand ceiling. After configuring BTC ETFs, ETH ETFs become the only remaining choice. With ETFs, hundreds of billions of dollars in large-scale funds can conveniently allocate assets, significantly enhancing ETH's investment attributes and market depth, serving as an important external factor supporting long-term bullish sentiment.
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On-chain Fees: With the recent recovery of cryptocurrency prices and on-chain activity, Ethereum's fee income has rebounded and once again surpassed other public chains, returning to the second position in on-chain fee income in the second quarter of 2025. According to Artemis data, Ethereum's total network fees in June were approximately $39.1 million, second only to Tron, which to some extent reflects the return of Ethereum network demand.
Source: Artemis
DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL): defillama data shows that Ethereum's TVL rose from $60.2 billion on June 28 to a 3-year high of $85.9 billion on July 28, growing over 42% during the month. Additionally, the global DeFi total TVL broke through $153 billion in late July, creating a three-year high, with nearly 60% locked on Ethereum. However, it's worth noting that Ethereum's price increased by 59.9% during the same period, exceeding the TVL growth rate. When measured in ETH terms, TVL actually decreased by 1%, indicating that the recent TVL record high was primarily driven by ETH price appreciation. This means that if asset prices pull back, the TVL indicator may correspondingly decline.
Source: defillama (above graph shows ETH TVL)
Staking Situation: It's worth mentioning that Ethereum's staking scale has repeatedly hit new highs - currently, over 36 million ETH are staked, approaching 30% of the current total supply. These locked ETH effectively reduce circulating supply and decrease selling pressure from a supply-demand perspective. Although over 500,000 ETH are currently queued for unstaking, simultaneous large-scale new staking entries can offset the impact of mass exits, and the cryptocurrency price remains strong, so there's no need for excessive panic.
Source: Cryptoquant
Source: validatorqueue
(Note: I've translated the first part of the text. Would you like me to continue with the rest?)Standing at the milestone of Ethereum's tenth anniversary, we can observe the resonance between internal fundamentals and external environment: favorable core indicators, continuous technological upgrades, and optimized team governance have made the Ethereum network more robust; meanwhile, emerging narratives of stablecoins and RWA, along with incremental funds brought by ETF, have continuously injected upward momentum into ETH. As a result, an increasing number of asset management institutions and analysts hold an optimistic view of Ethereum's medium and long-term prospects, believing it may challenge new heights in the coming years.
Of course, challenges from other public chains and regulatory changes may still bring volatility. However, we can be certain that at the starting point of the next decade, Ethereum is transforming into a "new financial infrastructure", and the exciting journey may have just begun.
