đ Ethereumâs Bull Run Accelerates: 4 Key Signals Point to Explosive Momentum

Ethereum isn't just climbingâit's rewriting the playbook. Four tectonic shifts suggest ETH's rally has teeth, and Wall Street's dinosaurs haven't even noticed yet.
1. The Liquidity Tsunami
Smart money's flooding into ETH derivativesâopen interest just hit levels last seen before the 2021 bull run. When whales place bets this size, they're not hedgingâthey're hunting.
2. The Gas Fee Paradox
Network activity should be choking on its own success. Instead, layer-2 adoption keeps fees suspiciously low. More transactions, less frictionâclassic bull market fuel.
3. Institutional FOMO
Spot ETH ETF whispers became shouts last week. Traditional finance always shows up lateâwith brinks trucks.
4. The Developer Exodus That Wasn't
Competitor chains promised developer defections. GitHub commits tell a different storyâEthereum's still where builders build.
Will this time be different? Probably notâthe cycles always rhyme. But right now, ETH's chart isn't just bullish... it's borderline obnoxious. (And yes, your banker still thinks it's 'just internet money.')
ETH Gains Lag Behind BTC Since 2022
In chemical science, ether is a humor, and the better part of good humor is excellent timing.
Over most 30-day periods in the past 12 months, crypto investors would have been better off holding Bitcoin if their goal was to achieve a higher 30-day ROI from their investment.
The trailing 12-month return on investment for BTC is +75% compared to ETHâs +19% over the same period. Some Ethereum holders have been wondering whatâs up with its market action compared to Bitcoinâs.
In large part, the Ethereum base layer, by design, sacrificed capital inflows over the past 12 months to low-fee LAYER 2 Ethereum networks and capital inflows to their currencies.
These include, among some of the largest by total market cap, Mantle (MNT), POL (POL), Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP), and Starknet (STRK).
Itâs like trying to inflate a balloon, but thereâs a vent with extra air going into a bunch of other balloons first before you get enough air pressure to keep inflating the main balloon.
To top that off, Ethereum is a very big balloon, clocking August 2nd at $468 billion in market capitalization on a fascinating multi-year trend line since 2015 for long-term saver investors.
That said, here are four bullish portents that the sign of ETH is rising in the air:
1. Ethereum Roars Back In Multi-Billion Dollar Wall Street Frenzy
A month into Q3, the pressure from inflows to the Ether economy has finally built up to the point of pushing its price back up and really moving the needle.
Ethereumâs phenomenal July price gains show demand has grown broad and DEEP enough to overcome the massive planned leakage of inflows to Ethereum Layer 2s.
Thatâs got the bulls posting wild price predictions, like BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, who said, âEther = $10,000â on Jul. 22. He also made these comments in a post on his Medium blog:
âEver since solana rose from the FTX ashes from $7 to $280, Ether has been the most hated large-cap crypto. No more; the Western institutional investor class, whose chief cheerleader is Tom Lee, loves Ether. Buy first, ask questions later.â
2. Ethereum ETFs Blowout Record Inflows
Iconic Wall Street mascot Gordon Gekko once said, âGreed is good.â
A massive cohort on Wall Street is already aware of blockchainâs usefulness and has become addicted to bitcoin and Ether returns in 2025. Theyâve been backing up the entire boat and loading up on Ether tokens through ETFs, custody services, and on-chain developments.
Capital inflows to buy Ethereum ETFs shattered a record in July as feverish demand on Wall Street picked up pace. Ether ETFs attracted $2.12 billion in a week in mid-July and continued to ramp up huge sums in the weeks that followed, despite the relative market slowdown.
Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Investments, wrote on July 22 a note outlining the âEthereum Demand Shock,â which is pumping ETH prices up with all this ROI-hungry capital from Wall Street ETF buyers and a bevy of new Ether corporate treasury companies with publicly traded shares on the US stock market.
3. SharpLink Gaming Stakes Hundreds of Millions in ETH
This online sports betting company, based in Minneapolis and traded on Nasdaq, has a business model ripe for disruption by blockchain solutions to create fairness and security for online players.
Following up on Strategy, Inc.âs BTC treasury campaign, SharpLink had acquired 188,478 ETH by June 25. That WOULD be worth nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars a month later.
After that, over five days in mid-July, SharpLink took another whale-sized corporate bite out of the Ethereum supply. The online sports betting specialists locked in 60,582 ETH worth some $180 million.
Meanwhile, Wall Street rewarded the company for the move, jolting its stock by 17% in under 24 hours.
By Jul. 16, SharpLink Gaming had locked in 280,000 ETH, worth around $900 million, throwing a supply pinch, rallying Ether bulls, and drastically changing the calculus for Ether price valuations. Its holdings continue to increase almost daily and stand at over 480,000 ETH as of August 3.
The company says itâs staking all of that and generating hundreds of thousands of dollars weekly in yields by holding its Ether staked.
4. Bitmineâs $250 Million and Growing Ether Fund
In addition to SharpLink Gaming, thereâs Las Vegas-based Bitmine Immersion Technologies, a US blockchain firm that recently pivoted to buying, holding, and staking ETH.
They brought in Tom Lee, the FundStrat executive who used to appear on CNBC during the pandemic and say that Bitcoin would eventually reach $1 million. At the same time, the other commentators smiled and nodded.
To start off July, Bitmine launched a $250 million corporate Ether treasury, and its stock soared 3,000% in almost no time, rising from the penny bin to above $135 a share.