Corporations are buying Ether at a faster pace than Bitcoin, signaling a shift in institutional interest toward the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency as it prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary, according to a new report from Standard Chartered shared with Cointelegraph.
Corporate cryptocurrency treasury firms have bought up 1% of the total Ether (ETH) supply since the beginning of June, the bank said in a Tuesday research report.
Over the same period, Ether-focused treasury firms have doubled the pace of investments compared to their Bitcoin (BTC)-focused counterparts, helping ETH outperform Bitcoin’s price action, the report said.
The report attributed some of Ether’s recent price strength to this accumulation trend and the performance of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), writing:
“Buying by these companies, along with the best period for ETH ETFs on record, has certainly contributed to those gains.”
Standard Chartered added that continued inflows could push ETH above its $4,000 year-end forecast.
Despite the increasing accumulation by corporations and US spot Ether ETFs, ETH’s price remains over 21% below its all-time high of $4,890 set four years ago in November 2021, Cointelegraph data shows.
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Corporations could reach 10% of all ETH
Ether-focused treasury firms have more growth potential compared to Bitcoin treasury firms from a “regulatory arbitrage perspective,” according to Standard Chartered.
Ether treasury firms can “capture both staking rewards and decentralised finance (DeFi) leverage opportunities, which US Ethereum ETFs currently cannot,” the report said, adding:
“We think they may eventually end up owning 10% of all ETH, a 10x increase from current holdings.”
Publicly-listed Bitcoin mining company, BitMine Immersion Tech is currently the largest Ether treasury firm, holding 625,000 Ether tokens, or 0.52% of the total circulating ETH supply, the firm announced as part of a $1 billion stock repurchase program on Tuesday.
The firm previously announced plans to acquire up to 5% of the Ether supply, which would involve the acquisition of another 6 million Ether tokens, according to Standard Chartered.
Nasdaq-listed Sharplink is the second-largest corporate Ether holder, with a total of 438,190 Ether, after acquiring $290 million worth of Ether between July 21 and 27 at an average price of $3,756, Sharplink announced on Tuesday.
The report comes a week after a newly-formed company, called the Ether Machine, announced plans to launch “one of the largest onchain ETH positions of any public entity,” planning to acquire over 400,000 ETH worth more than $1.5 billion and to get listed on the Nasdq under the ticker symbol “ETHM,” Cointelegraph reported on July 21.
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