Late to Bitcoin Boom? Ethereum’s August Performance Signals a New Crypto Star Rising
Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, surged close to $4,600 in August, driven by institutional investments, ETF inflows, positive market sentiment, and rising on-chain activity.
According to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum jumped 9% in the past 24 hours, taking its market capitalization to $560.56 billion. The digital asset has significantly outperformed Bitcoin this month, posting a 25% gain in August compared to Bitcoin’s modest 3% rise, said Piyush Walke, Derivatives Research Analyst at Delta Exchange.
The cryptocurrency broke past the $4,600 level—just 200 points shy of its all-time high from November 2021. Walke added that the rally is being fuelled by strong bullish momentum, institutional inflows, technical breakouts, and optimism surrounding Ether ETFs. On Monday, spot Ether ETFs recorded their highest-ever single-day net inflows of $1.01 billion, coinciding with Ethereum’s 90% gain over the past 40 days.
Ethereum’s founder, Vitalik Buterin, has once again become a crypto billionaire, with his portfolio now valued at around $1.04 billion. Since its inception, ETH has delivered an extraordinary 163,392% return to early investors.
Institutional investors like Bitmine and SharpLink have increased their Ethereum holdings, in some cases by several hundred percent, reflecting growing confidence. These inflows have reinforced bullish technical patterns and helped ETH break key resistance levels.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin has retreated slightly to $118,989 after approaching its all-time high, showing a 4.25% rise over the past week.
Vikas Gupta, Country Manager for Bybit India, said Ethereum’s surge is being driven by record-breaking institutional participation through U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs, which attracted over $1 billion in net inflows in just one week—the largest since their inception. “This mirrors early trends observed with Bitcoin ETFs, highlighting growing interest from wealth managers, hedge funds, and RIAs for ETH exposure. Leading asset managers like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale are closely watching institutional demand for Ethereum, signalling its transition from a retail-heavy asset to mainstream investment,” he added.
Edul Patel, CEO and Co-Founder of Mudrex, noted that Ethereum ETFs saw approximately $1.5 billion in net inflows in the last two days alone, further supporting the rally. Historically, Ethereum rallies often trigger a broader market upswing, leading to an altcoin season if the trend continues.
Ethereum, launched in 2015 by Vitalik Buterin and co-founders, is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform enabling developers to build and deploy smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). Its native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), is used to pay for transaction fees and computational services on the network, going beyond Bitcoin’s primary function as digital money by offering programmable blockchain capabilities.
