What is driving ETH outperformance as it eyes record highs

Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin in recent weeks, with its latest leg higher bringing ETH’s record high into focus. What has been driving these gains, and is there more upside to come? 

Ethereum has been striving higher in recent sessions as Bitcoin continues to consolidate below the 120k psychological level. Ethereum soared 9.5% over the past 24 hours, compared to BTC’s 0.5% gain. Meanwhile, Ethereum has surged 30% over the past week and 50% over the past month compared to Bitcoin’s 4% weekly gain and 5% monthly move. 

Ethereum’s latest jump, taking the price to $4683, just shy of its $4861 record high reached in November 2021, comes amid a series of tailwinds, including soaring corporate and institutional demand. 

ETH treasury tailwind 

ETH treasury buys have helped power ETH higher. Several US-listed companies outlined plans to increase their Ether holdings this week amid growing adoption of a buying strategy that was popularised by Michael Saylor’s (Micro) Strategy. 

Bitmine disclosed this week that it held over 1.15 million ETH tokens, valued at $4.9 billion. They also filed with the SEC to raise up to $24.5 billion in capital to ramp up ETH acquisition. The company targets owning 10% of Ethereum’s total supply, which would cement its dominance in Ethereum treasury holdings. 

Ether treasury firm Sharplink Gaming announced on Monday that it had raised $400 million which aims to use to buy more Ether. The company disclosed holdings of 598,800 tokens. 

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, as well as an early backer of Facebook, disclosed a 7.5% stake in the Ethereum treasury firm ETHZilla. Earlier this week, ETHZilla announced that it had acquired 82,186 ETH at $3806.00 each. The share price exploded 200% tripling its market cap. 

Institutional demand is also overflowing with spot E TH ETF, smashing records with over $1 billion of net inflows recorded on Monday, outperforming BTC ETF demand. ETH ETF has seen 13 straight weeks of net inflows. 

Persistent corporate and institutional interest could drive demand and legitimacy, helping to lift ETH above its record high of $4861 towards 5k and beyond. 

How high could ETH go? 

Given ETH’s 240% rally from its April low, and as its record high comes into focus, attention turns towards year-end predictions and longer-term forecasts. Standard Chartered has raised its 2025 year-end ETH forecast to $7500, citing increased industry engagement and rising adoption by treasury companies.  

Sean Ferrell of Fundstrat anticipates that the ETH/BTC ratio could return to 0.14, which would value ETH at $16,000 based on the current BTC price. 

 Meanwhile, Cathie Woods, CEO of Ark Invest has predicted that ETH could reach 166k by 2032. 

ETH technical analysis 

ETH rallied above 4000 and extended its gains to a high of 4715. The MACD saw a bullish crossover. Should bulls continue this upward momentum, the rally could extend above 4868 to fresh record highs. With blue skies above, 5000 would be the next logical target. 

The RSI is deeply overbought. On other occasions, when the RSI has been deeply overbought, the price has consolidated, so a period of consolidation could be on the cards. 4000 is a key psychological support. A break below 3400 creates a lower low. 

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