Ethereum news previously highlighted low institutional appeal for ETH especially in March and April. Not much has changed for the most part except for the observation that BlackRock has been quietly adding more coins to its ETH holdings.
According to the latest Ethereum news, BlackRock purchased $32.5 million worth of ETH on Tuesday. The only other ETF that bought ETH on the same day was Fidelity at $3.4 million, bringing the total inflows for the day to $38.8 million.
Source: X
BlackRock injected roughly $294 million into ETH so far in May and has so far injected just over $4.4 billion into ETH.Z This made it the largest ETH ETF by its holdings.
Interestingly, most other ETFs demonstrated low positive flows into ETH especially this month. But, that could soon change following reports that a new player is entering the market with the intent of acquiring ETH by the boat load.
SharpLink Gaming Announces Ethereum Plans
NASDAQ listed firm, SharpLink Gaming recently announced plans for a private investment round through which it planned to raise $425 million. According to the announcement, the company will create its first Ethereum treasury reserve using the proceeds.
Source: X
The company was even described as the Ethereum MicroStrategy courtesy of its aggressive push towards ETH. If successful, SharpLink Gaming will hold more ETH than some of the currently existing ETH ETFs.
It will also contribute aggressively to the demand for the cryptocurrency, making it one of the top ETH holders. The announcement marked a pivotal moment for ETH considering that intuitional demand has been relatively weak.
However, the observation that BlackRock remained interested and that a new player was making its way into the fold, were healthy signs for ETH demand.
Weak Demand Leaves ETH Struggling to Break Above $2,700
ETH bulls decided to catch a break after a bullish performance in the second week of May, during which price rallied as high as $2,739. However, the bulls appeared to have lost momentum after that, leaving the price struggling to stay above $2,700.
The cryptocurrency exchanged hands at $2,637 at the time of observation. However, hopes of a new bullish attempt were on the rise as the RSI was about to break above its Moving Average.
ETH price action: Source: TradingView
While ETH’s price action and its recent resistance confirmed short term limitation, the brewing institutional holder situation suggests possible demand surge. While the data suggests the possibility of surging demand in the future, some data suggests that it may already be in play.
ETH’s exchange reserve data suggested that the market was experiencing renewed demand. For context, exchange reserves were positive in the last 7 days during which they gained by 260,109 coins worth over $680 million at press time value.
ETH exchange reserves: Source: CryptoQuant
Looking at Ethereum news over the last 4 weeks, this is the first time that exchange reserves have turned positive. In addition, exchange reserves bounced back from the same support level observed in late August last year.
Ethereum Price Outlook
The last time that ETH retested the same level, price build up towards a massive rally in Q4 2024. Could the cryptocurrency be building towards a similar outcome especially as institutional liquidity starts building up?
ETH also demonstrated growing interest in the derivatives segment. Open interest has been recovering aggressively and recently pushed to levels last seen in early February. In addition, the cryptocurrency’s estimated leverage ratio recently surged to a new ATH indicating growing optimism and appetite among investors.
ETH open interest and estimated leverage ratio; Source: CryptoQuant
While the above data reinforced the brewing optimism around ETH, there were still some concerns in the market. For example, the tariff wars had a negative impact on crypto prices earlier this year. A cloud of uncertainty is still looming over crypto and other risk-on assets now that the tariff wars are expected to make a comeback in June.
