Ethereum Smashes $3,650 as Wall Street FOMO Turns ’Digital Oil’ Into a Geyser

Institutional money is flooding Ethereum like a Texas oil rush—only this derrick pumps smart contracts instead of crude.

The big boys want in

Hedge funds and family offices are piling into ETH positions, treating the blockchain like a corporate bond with 100x volatility. The $3,650 breakout suggests they’re betting on DeFi 2.0—or just terrified of missing the next liquidity tsunami.

Gas fees versus gas guzzlers

While retail traders sweat over network congestion, whales are buying ETH like it’s the last barrel in a peak-oil scenario. The irony? Wall Street spent years mocking crypto—now they’re paying $200 gas fees to front-run their own ETF approvals.

When the suits start calling your asset class ‘digital infrastructure,’ hold on to your private keys. The pump is rarely altruistic—but the profits? Those are very real.

In the past hour, Ethereum inflow on OKX reached $3.8 million with an outflow of $1.76 million, resulting in a net inflow of over $2.04 million.

More than 90% of the funds came from on-chain addresses. This means that users are actively transferring ETH to the platform, which may be related to the strengthening market sentiment.

In addition, data from SoSo Value shows that cumulative net inflow for U.S.-listed ETH spot ETF managed to reach a high of $7.09 billion as of July 17. Daily total net inflow has reached $602 million, just a day after it reached a record-high of $717 million in daily total inflows.

BlackRock’s ETHA continues to lead the charge with $546.7 million in recorded inflows. Fidelity and Grayscale are also major contributors, each boasting $17.19 million and $29.9 million i inflows respectively.

Is Ethereum the new ‘digital oil’?

Bitcoin (BTC) is not the only asset that has seen major institutional action lately. As more and more companies are jumping on the crypto treasury train, Ethereum has become an attractive asset for investors seeking an alternative asset aside from BTC and stablecoins to hedge them against the ever-evolving economic landscape.

In fact, many crypto figureheads like former Wall Street banker and Etherealize CEO Vivek Raman have started calling Ethereum “digital oil,” a comparison that echoes Bitcoin’s “digital gold” moniker.

The comparison stems from the fact that like oil powering machinery and transport, ETH needs to consume “gas” to power every transaction. Not only that, ever since ETH capped annual issuance to about 1.5% per year, it is similar to oil production which responds to market demand.

Earlier today, the Tom Lee-led crypto mining and ETH treasury firm Bitmine Immersion announced that its Ethereum holdings had surpassed $1 billion, more than triple the $250 million it raised in a private placement just a week earlier.

As previously reported by crypto.news, BitMine currently holds 300,657 ETH worth $1 billion, surpassing the Ethereum Foundation’s $665 million holdings by nearly $400 million.