Yerevan (CoinChapter.com) — Ethereum blockchain’s native token Ether (ETH) broke the $3,000 barrier. It was trading at $3,180 in the early London session on Monday.
Institutional Investors Join In
The latest major institutional involvement in the Ethereum sector came from the European Investment Bank on April 28. The “lending arm of the EU” issued €100M ($121M) digital notes atop the Ethereum blockchain, validating its ledger’s massive potential in the mainstream financial sector. Meanwhile, EIB’s involvement fueled Ether’s demand among daytraders, facilitating a 43 percent price rally as measured from its April 25 low.
Though significant, the event wasn’t the first investment for Ethereum this year. 2021 was productive for the blockchain, as it had staggering 334% YTD growth. Along with blockchain upgrades, institutional investments were sparks fueling the Ethereum fire. Some experts have been vocal on Twitter, supporting the claim.
Earlier investments
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of the largest derivatives exchanges in the world, dipped its toes in the Ethereum market early this year. They launched ether futures on Feb. 8, 2021, opening a gateway to institutional and accredited investors to place their directional bets on ETH.
The announcement boosted the ETH price by 12% in the next 24 hours and provided long-term opportunities for the token.
Also, according to Two Prime, a Hong Cong-based fintech and crypto research company, Ethereum has had multiple significant institutional investments over the past year, boosting its price. The authors provide a timeline of such investments, along with the prices of ETH at the time.
After Amazon made Ethereum ready-available on their servers on March 2, 2021, ETH price surged by 30% in the coming week.
On April 13, JPMorgan, a U.S. banking giant, invested $65 million in Consensys, an Etherem-centric software development firm. Subsequently, ETH enjoyed a 17% jump in less than 48 hours after the announcement.
ZyCrypto also conducted a thorough research on Ethereum derivatives market to gauge institutional interest in the token.
We are currently witnessing the use of out-of-the-money (OOTM) put options to hedge long-spot positions in the crypto markets, a sign that institutional investors are penetrating the market. Options volume (the number of contracts traded daily) and option open interest (the number of active contracts) have also increased which further reflects the increasing institutional adoption of Ethereum.
Ruholamin Haqshanas for ZyCrypto.
Fulfilled Ethereum Predictions
Given the spotlight attention from institutions and the upcoming upgrades in the Ethereum network, some experts have made predictions of the events unfolding. Many of them trusted ETH to rocket in late April. They noted that the token could break above the $3,000 price ceiling by the beginning of May.
Famous Youtuber and crypto expert Jebb McAfee presented a video on his platform on April 28, offering three reasons why the flagship cryptocurrency could hit $3,200 in the first days of May.
Read more: 3 Reasons Why Ethereum Price Could Hit $3,200
Meanwhile, Nick Spanos, the founder of Zap.org, said in an exclusive interview with CoinChapter.com, that the ETH/USD exchange would soar, providing a flurry of reasons to explain his extremely bullish take on the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. One of the primary factors, according to Mr. Spanos, that could push the prices higher is a network upgrade.
Read more: Ethereum Set To Hit $3,000 By April-End, Asserts Top Exec
Both of those predictions panned out. Increased attention from institutional investors, together with the network upgrades, propelled the second-largest cryptocurrency to the moon. ETH is currently at $3,176, continuing its extreme bullish rally.
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