Ethereum's Epic Surge: Bitwise CIO Predicts Months of Momentum

Holy smokes, Ethereum's been on a wild ride lately, roaring back from the dead after months of being stuck in the mud. The crypto world's buzzing, shifting the convo from "When's ETH gonna pop?" to "How long can this wild rally keep going?" And guess who's jumping into the fray? None other than Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan, dishing out his hot takes on what's next for ETH.

In a fiery X thread on July 22, Hougan spilled the beans on why Ethereum's price is rocketing and why he thinks this party's just getting started. The man's got a simple but killer point: it's all about the insane demand from exchange-traded products (ETPs) and corporate big shots.

From Trickle to Tsunami: Ethereum's Demand Shock

Hougan took us back to when Ethereum was dragging its feet earlier this year, all thanks to the bigwigs barely giving it a glance. Ethereum's ETPs were stuck in neutral, barely scraping together a few billion bucks and snagging just 660,000 ETH.

Meanwhile, the network was churning out about 543,000 ETH. With supply and demand playing tug-of-war, there was no juice for the price to skyrocket.

But hold onto your hats, because things flipped fast. Around mid-May, spot Ethereum ETPs exploded with buying frenzy, raking in over $5 billion in a flash. And that's not all—a fresh crew of corporate heavyweights joined the party.

In the last few months, a tidal wave of corporate ETH buyers has been shaking things up. Big names like iGaming giant SharpLink and mining maestros Bitmine have been going head-to-head, racing to build the fattest ETH treasuries around.

Their relentless buying sprees have already blown past even the Ethereum Foundation's stash, with SharpLink sitting pretty on 360,807 ETH and Bitmine hot on their heels with around 300,000 ETH.

Bitwise crunched the numbers and found that ETPs and corporate treasuries have gobbled up 2.83 million ETH since May, worth over $10 billion. That's a whopping 32 times more than the fresh ETH the network's been spitting out. And according to the CIO, this crazy demand-to-supply mismatch is the rocket fuel behind ETH's mind-blowing 50% surge over the past month. And get this—it's not even the peak yet.

ETH to the Moon? Institutions Are Just Warming Up

Check this out: Ethereum's market cap is nearly 19% of Bitcoin's, but ETH ETPs are holding less than 12% of the assets compared to Bitcoin products. That's a massive gap, leaving tons of room for a flood of cash if investors decide to even things out.

Hougan's betting that these Ethereum-focused treasury companies are gonna keep doubling down on their buying spree. Their strategy's paying off big time, boosting their stock prices and showing the world they mean business. That could just keep the buying frenzy going.

ETPs and corporate treasuries are set to snap up around 5.3 million ETH, roughly $20 billion, over the next year. With the network only spitting out about 0.8 million ETH in that time, the demand could outstrip new supply by almost seven times.

Now, Ethereum's got a different beat than Bitcoin's capped supply, but Hougan's all about keeping it real: short-term prices are all about supply and demand. And right now, demand's leaving new issuance in the dust. If this keeps up, buckle up—Ethereum's in for a wild ride of gains.