Ethereum, the world’s second-largest crypto asset, is up more than 20% since the launch of Ethereum Futures Contracts by the CME Group on Monday. A total of 388 ETH contracts were traded on the first day with a total volume of $33.6 million.
Ethereum's price recorded its highest level on Wednesday after ETH jumped from $1,500 to above $1,800 within the first three days of the week. As of writing, the cryptocurrency is trading above $1,810, eyeing another record high.
ETH's price is not the only thing that is gaining attention these days. The latest data by crypto Analytics and research firm CoinMetrics shows that Ethereum’s on-chain network activity has increased significantly in the last few months and the network is now settling more value than BTC.
Grayscale, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, purchased 12,450 Ethereum in the last 24 hours as the total number of Grayscale’s ETH under management jumped above 3.05 million. The total value of the company’s ETH assets now stands at around $5.4 billion. Grayscale accumulated 96,199 ETH in the last 7 days.
Institutional Adoption
The recent launch of Ethereum’s CME Futures Contracts gave institutional investors another platform to trade ETH. Since the start of 2021, institutional demand for ETH jumped substantially as major crypto asset management firms reported growing interest of institutional investors in Ethereum-related investment products. Finance Magnates reported yesterday about the jump in ETH crypto inflows. According to the CoinShares report, Ethereum represented around 80% of the total crypto inflows last week.
ETH saw a rapid increase in its transaction fees, but despite the jump in fees, the overall network activity and usage remained high. Ethereum’s total market cap surpassed $200 billion today as the cryptocurrency is now more valuable than leading financial firms like Wells Fargo and Citigroup. The overall market cap of crypto assets jumped above $1.4 trillion for the first time today after the rally in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
