Ether (ETH) has started to bounce back after an 11% slump during the night of Israel’s initial rocket attack on Iran last week.
ETH steadily rose over the weekend and had gained 4% by 18:00 (UTC) during Monday 16 June trading, surpassing $2,600 even as Israel and Iran continued to trade blows.
Financial markets turned volatile overnight into Friday 13 June after Israel’s initial strikes of Iranian military bases and nuclear facilities. While oil surged and some investors fled to assets traditionally consider safe habours such as gold, the markets have stabilized since the first exchange of fire. In addition to most cryptocurrencies, stocks advanced as investors began to digest the situation.
The two countries each fired missiles into residential areas of Tehran and Tel Aviv, resulting in civilian deaths. Nonetheless, the military attacks are perceived to be contained and unlikely to escalate into a full-blown regional conflict, according to the market reaction.
Fund inflows
ETH funds received $583 million last week, the largest inflow since February, lifting the nine-week total to $2 billion. Meanwhile, the open interest on contracts to buy ETH at a later date sits at 13.9 million ETH, or about $36 billion. That implies traders are taking long positions, or betting on an increase in the price of the asset.
Meanwhile, ETH staking recently reached an all-time high, indicating growing adoption or trust from the community using the Ethereum system. Staking is a way to obtain a higher investment yield from ETH through actions that help to secure the network.
Potential value
That’s incentivized commentators to make bold calls about ETH’s potential value. On X, crypto economist and analyst @MilkybullCrypto noted that the coin was going through a similar pattern to 2017, when ETH surged from about $15 to about $1,500.
In 2017, the coin had been fluctuating in the $10-20 range and when it broke the upper limit, investor confidence surged, and it skyrocketed. With ETH now in a similar pattern and channel ranging from $2,150 to $3,600, the asset could once again make a jaw-dropping advance, according to the analyst’s theory.
Whale wallets grow
Ethereum whales – traders with wallets holding between 1,000 and 10,000 ETH – amassed more than 818,000 ETH on 15 June, the largest single daily inflow since 2018. The bullish sentiment from some of the largest wallets in Ether has shown a wave of confidence to the market.
The wallets held a total value of 16 million ETH yesterday – compared with 11 million ETH one year ago. As large holders continue to accumulate ETH, it sends a message of confidence in the continued price appreciation of the token.
Optimistic bets
It’s not only the investor whales who are confident. Bettors on prediction platforms Polymarket and Kalshi are also wagering on Ethereum’s price growth. The platforms recorded millions of dollars of bets on the value of ETH.
Polymarket’s users are ambitious: 16% of them have bet that Ethereum will clear $6,000 by the end of the year. A further 38% of bets are on $ETH reaching $4,000 by the end of 2025, and another 24% bet on a rise to $5,000.
However, 16% of bettors on the site wagered on a severe drop to $1,000 by the end of the year, which would be a huge downturn compared to market trends.
On Kalshi:
- 35% bet on $4,000
- 31% on $4,500
- 21% on $5,000 by end of 2025.
Except Monero
Most of the top 20 tokens by market capitalization advanced with ETH. The main exception was privacy coin Monero, which fell 0.8% by 18:00 (UTC) on 16 June and certain small DeFi tokens – a set of cryptocurrencies operating on decentralized networks – trading at low volume.
