Tom Lee of Fundstrat also believes that Ether will eventually surpass $60,000 in the long term.
Ethereum hit an all-time high of 48.22 million monthly transactions, with 1.8 million daily transactions recorded in the last 24 hours. On-chain data also shows that ETH’s monthly transactions increased by 5.8% in the past 30 days and 51% in the past 12 months.
The digital asset topped $320 billion in transaction volume across the mainnet in August, marking its third-largest month ever. Institutional demand and exchange-traded fund inflows drove a huge chunk of ETH transactions.
Ethereum’s price surged last month and hit an all-time high of $4,953, and is exchanging hands at $4,460 at press time after experiencing slight intraday volatility. The digital asset’s price has also seen a 24% increase in the past 30 days and an 86.52% surge in the last 12 months.
ETH’s total value locked (TVL) in DeFi currently stands at $92.24 billion, nearing its peak at approximately $108.8 million from the 2021 bull cycle. It also received a total of 64,793 new addresses in the last 24 hours.
On-chain data shows that Ethereum topped its monthly decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume at $139.63 billion last month. It marked the digital asset’s strongest month ever for DEX activity, solidifying its role as the leading Layer-1 network for on-chain trading.
As of September 5, Ethereum’s supply on all exchanges dropped to its lowest level in three years, roughly 17.3 million. Increased demand from investment funds and corporate buyers has drained most of ETH’s reserves on exchanges.
Companies adding Ethereum to their holdings also hit $12 billion by the end of August. SharpLink Gaming led the pack with 797,704 ETH holdings in late August, worth approximately $3.5 billion.
BitMine Immersion follows with more than 1.5% (about $1.86 billion) of Ethereum’s circulating supply. On Thursday, the company added another $65 million in ETH to its treasury as its first batch this month. On-chain data revealed that the firm made six transactions through Galaxy Digital to finalize the purchase.
“We continue to believe Ethereum is one of the biggest macro trades over the next 10-15 years. Wall Street and AI moving onto the blockchain should lead to a greater transformation of today’s financial system. And the majority of this is taking place on Ethereum.”
-Tom Lee, Chairman of BitMine.
Lee also believes that Ether will eventually surpass $60,000 in the long term. He compared institutional interest in the digital asset to 1971’s New York Stock Market records for volume and single-day gain.
On-chain data also shows spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) attracted more than $13.21 billion in net inflows since launching in July 2024. The funds also pulled in over $10 billion in net inflows between June and August, with July alone seeing $4.86 billion.
At the time of writing, BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum ETF (ETHA) leads with over $13.14 billion in its holdings. The Fidelity Ethereum Fund follows with 2.5 billion ETH, while the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF has over 1.42 billion ETH.
Fabian Dori, chief investment officer of Sygnum, argued that Ethereum has recently experienced a significant boost in the recognition of both its adoption rate and value proposition. He also believes that staking is the next frontier for Ether ETFs due to the potential ability to accrue an additional yield within a regulated exchange-traded structure.
Lee also reiterated that publicly traded companies with ETH treasuries should trade at a premium because they can stake their holdings. ETHs are currently constrained by liquidity requirements, preventing them from staking their entire holdings. He argued that Ethereum should add a 90% value to a company holding ETH in its holdings since it generates a 3% staking reward. According to him, the initiative would imply a multiplier of 1.9, and ETFs will never get the proper multiplier for staking.
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