Corporations have acquired 1% of Ether supply: Standard Chartered
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 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, data shows.Corporations could reach 10% of all ETHEther-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.Magazine: Comeback 2025 — Is Ethereum poised to catch up with Bitcoin and Solana?