Ether Tops $2.9k and Its Supply Outlook Looks Better Than Bitcoin’s

The second-largest cryptocurrency on the market, Ethereum (ETH), managed to outprice Bitcoin’s (BTC) rally in the past week. It looks like a trend that could continue as the fundamentals for Ethereum’s native token looks more favourable than the larger cryptocurrencies.

In the past 7 days, Ether gained over 16% in value and went over $2,900 for the first time in almost 2 years. On the other hand, Bitcoin’s price went up by just 8.5% to $52,300. This Ether-Bitcoin ratio went up nearly 7% to 0.055.

Ethereum’s Recent Performance

Ethereum’s performance comes just weeks after chasing Bitcoin as traders went after two things. The first one was the release of BTC ETFs in the U.S. and the upcoming reward halving. With the latter event, the per-block BTC payout will be cut from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

Greg Magadini, Amberdata’s director of derivatives, noted that the traders’ focus might soon turn to a significant drop in Ether’s supply. This comes after Ethereum’s transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in September 2022.

It is something that contrasts with Bitcoin’s halving, which is slowing down the crypto coin’s rate of growth. Magadinin said that the halving is nothing compared to the active Reduction in ETH supply.

He also added that Ethereum is the next play at the moment. Then he pointed out the low ETH-BTC ratio and the much better fundamental supply picture of Ether.

Ether’s Supply Reduction and the Eth ETFs

Since the Merge, the Ethereum network issued 1,047,643 ETH ($3.05 billion) and it burned or taken out of circulation 1,407,200 ETH. This activity caused a net supply reduction of 0.209% or 359,557 year-on-year.

This reduction in supply indicates a deflationary trend that comes from Ethereum burning a piece of transaction fees given to validators. The merge substituted the miners with validators. This action removed a significant portion of Ether’s supply from the crypto market.

Validators are staking at least 32 ETH to take part in the governing process and secure the blockchain in exchange for rewards. The number of Ether units locked or staked in the network goes over 30.1 million.

This is 25% of the total circulating supply that was featured earlier this month. Experts expect the Dencun upgrade, which is due March 2024, to slash transaction costs.

Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission expects to give a green light to Ether EFTs in the U.S. later in 2024. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Ark and 21 Shares, Fidelity, VanEcl, Grayscale, Invesco and Galaxy, and Hashdex, have all submitted applications to run one.

The SEC authorized almost a dozen BTC ETFs in the past month. This allowed investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without the need to own and store crypto coins. After its appearance on January 11^th, the ETFs generated around $5 billion, increasing the excitement of the potential Ethereum ETFs.

Magadini finished his analysis by saying how ETH’s supply story can become as bullish as fundamentals can get. All it needs is to combine the Staked ETH and the ETH Supply Burn as well as mix a Spot ETF. This actively puts ETH in cold storage.