Ethereum: Too soon to say goodbye to $3,000
Market picture
The crypto market lost 2.9% in the last 24 hours, retreating to a market capitalisation of $2.5 trillion. The market came under pressure as active trading began in the US on a fresh batch of strong economic data. News of the approval of spot ETFs on Ethereum only added to the pressure.
Ethereum's sell-off on positive news is a typical "buy the rumours, sell the facts" reaction of speculators. We saw the same in January after the approval of the Bitcoin ETF, which took 19% off its price in the following two weeks before there was a spectacular reversal.
Similarly, the market may let off steam regarding Ethereum. We shouldn't be surprised if the price pulls back to the $3000 area again, returning to an important consolidation area. From these levels, large institutional investors can start building a position in ETFs.
As a result of another recalculation, the difficulty of mining the first cryptocurrency increased by 1.48% to 84.38. The average hash rate for the period since the previous value change was 705 EH/s. Despite the increase, the complexity did not recover the indicator's collapse by almost 6%, which followed the halving.
News background
The US SEC has approved the launch of Ethereum spot ETFs, according to a document uploaded on the agency's website. The document lists eight ETFs from VanEck, Fidelity, Franklin, Grayscale, Bitwise, ARK Invest & 21Shares, Invesco & Galaxy, and BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust proposed for listing on the Nasdaq, NYSE Arca, and Cboe BZX Exchange. The Ethereum ETFs will face a week-long process to complete S-1 registration statements, a form required by the SEC for ETFs to list securities.
The move is expected to result in a significant influx of institutional capital into the Ethereum market. Standard Chartered predicts inflows of $15 billion to $45 billion in the first 12 months.
According to Nansen, the total market capitalisation of stablecoins has surpassed $160 billion, up $30 billion since the start of the year. The growth means "new money" is flowing into the segment, which is bullish.
A survey by the US Federal Reserve showed that 18 million US adults (7% of the population) have invested in cryptocurrencies over the past year.
From 12 June, messenger Telegram will introduce an internal currency called Telegram Stars to pay for digital goods and services in bots and mini apps. The initiative follows Apple's notification of a violation of App Store policy prohibiting the acceptance of internal payments, including cryptocurrencies, from customers. Bot owners reacted sharply negatively to the news, recalling Apple's 30 per cent commission.
Author
Alexander Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at FxPro, has been with the company since its foundation. From time to time, he gives commentaries on radio and television. He publishes in major economic and socio-political media.
