As the highly anticipated launch of the first spot Ethereum ETFs in the United States nears, experts are predicting a significant price appreciation for the second-largest cryptocurrency in the market.
Ethereum ETFs On The Horizon
According to a recent Reuters report, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could approve Ethereum ETFs as soon as July 4, as discussions between asset managers and regulators enter the final stages.
Industry executives and other participants who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the talks revealed that the process of amending the offering documents has progressed to resolving only “minor” issues, and approval is “probably not more than a week or two away.”
According to Morningstar Direct data, the launch of Bitcoin-based ETFs in the US in January was a major success, drawing around $8 billion in assets. By late June, these nine new products had nearly $38 billion in assets, although the holdings of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust – which converted its $27 billion BTC trust into an ETF simultaneously – dipped to $17.8 billion.
However, experts believe the launch of the new spot Ethereum ETFs may not be as impressive as the Bitcoin ETF debut. James Butterfill, head of research at Coinshares, noted that “Ethereum is not the same size in terms of market cap, nor does it have the same volumes” as BTC.
Given the differences in market size and nature of the two cryptocurrencies, Bryan Armour, an ETF analyst at Morningstar, believes inflows may be much more muted when the Ethereum ETFs launch.
“With Bitcoin, there had been pent-up demand for a decade, and investor interest was off the charts,” Armour said. “This just isn’t going to command the same excitement.” However, not everyone shares the same cautious outlook.
ETH Eyes Potential Rally Toward $7,500
Quinn Thompson, the founder and CIO of Lekker Capital, has recently stated that the market is in the middle of “one of the most obvious and attractive crypto buying opportunities of recent memory.”
Thompson further claimed that it was “cool” to be bullish in the past, but now, it appears that “Twitter has become a contest to see who can have the most negative ETH ETF take.” Thompson further noted:
Personally, I think ETH will reach $7,000 and BTC will make its first attempt at $100,000 by the election in November.
The Glassnode co-founders also shared a bullish price analysis for Ether, stating that if investors look at Ether’s history, similar patterns are developing as in the early stages of the 2021 bull market.
They believe the current structure gives a target of around $7,500 as a final high for Ether, mirroring the Fibonacci extension seen in 2021 and implying a strong rally in Ether “soon!”
While caution remains regarding the possibility of further price declines, experts argue that such a scenario would require a new exogenous event to occur. Overall, market sentiment is leaning towards Ethereum reaching $7,000 and Bitcoin’s first attempt at $100,000.
At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $3,460, up more than 3% over the past 24 hours as the broader market recovers from the corrections seen over the weekend and into the beginning of the week.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
