Ethereum Gains on Bullish Sentiment and Institutional Interest

Ethereum (ETH) is making waves yet again.

Over the past 24 hours, ETH has climbed 3%, pushing its price from $3,077 to a high of $3,287, before settling at its current $3,258. This is a price point not seen since April 10, 2022, marking a significant milestone in Ethereum’s ongoing journey.

The last seven days have also been quite profitable for ETH bulls. Starting the week at $2,968, it maintained a steady sideways trade for the first four days before spiking in the last three, resulting in a robust 9.9% gain.

The technical indicators are painting a vivid picture of a strongly bullish market.

The relative strength index (RSI) is currently at 82, indicating that ETH is extremely overbought. The RSI refers to the split between traders looking to buy and those looking to sell an asset. So that means 82 out of 100 traders are buying ETH.

The gap between the exponential moving average of the last 10 days (EMA10) and the average of the last 55 days, (EMA55) is widening. This means that in the short term, ETH is experiencing faster upward movement compared to its longer-term average, which is why it’s considered a strong bullish sign.

However, swing traders may want to brace for a short correction, which could bring ETH’s price closer to the EMA 10, currently around the $3,050 mark. The price of Ethereum has been bouncing over this line as support since the beginning of the month.

Ethereum’s bullish trend is simply a reflection of a broader bullish sentiment across the wider crypto market, with only five coins out of the top 100 experiencing a dip in the last 24 hours. The whole space has grown $155 billion in the last 24 hours alone.

By some measures, institutional investors could playing a significant role in this bullish trend. A new report from ByBit reveals a growing interest in Ethereum over Bitcoin among its institutional clients. The exchange compared institutional portfolio allocations of its clients from September 2023 through the end of January 2024.

“Since our last report, we have observed remarkable changes in portfolio allocation for institutions,” the report states. “Their portfolio has become more concentrated than ever, with a total of 80% of assets to Bitcoin and Ethereumeum, where institutions allocate 30% of total assets originally in stablecoin to Bitcoin and Ethereumeum.”

Interestingly, the world’s largest altcoin has been capturing the most attention, even though Bitcoin has gained a lot of steam in Wall Street.

“It is very interesting that Ethereum has become the institution’s new favorite,” the report notes. “The updated data suggests that they have shifted assets from Bitcoin and stablecoins to Ethereum.” Right now, the average crypto portfolio of an institution has 40% BTC and 40% ETH, ByBit wrote.

It’s not hard to see why institutions have started favoring ETH over BTC. “The outperformance of Ethereumeum in the past 30 days echoes the timing of this tactical shift by institutions,” the report adds.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.