Ether ETF inflows outstrip issuance since the Merge

U.S. spot exchange-traded funds tied to the second-largest cryptocurrency attracted $2.45bn over the past month, equivalent to roughly 500,000 ETH. Since the Merge, the network has issued 456,723 ETH.

This week also set a record, with investors pouring $2.27bn into nine spot Ethereum ETFs.

Analysts at Standard Chartered noted that demand is also being supported by “treasury” companies such as BitMine and SharpLink. Since June, they have bought 2.3m ETH (1.9% of circulating supply). Over the same period, exchange-traded funds accumulated 3.8% of Ethereum’s issuance.

Standard Chartered forecast ether at $7,500 by year-end. According to the bank, companies will keep buying and could lift their combined share to 10% of total supply.

BTC Markets analyst Rachael Lucas believes such accumulation is strategic and long term. In her words, it “removes significant liquidity from the market”.

“When record inflows into ETFs combine with corporate and sovereign allocations, you get deep structural demand amid constrained supply. That is a recipe for sustained price pressure and a sign that digital assets have firmly entered global capital markets,” she concluded.

At the time of writing, Ethereum trades around $4,750, nearing the all-time high of $4,878 recorded in January, according to CoinGecko.

Activity on Ethereum

The average daily number of transactions on Ethereum is holding near a record high, exceeding 1.8m.

For comparison, the L2 networks Arbitrum and Base processed over 3.4m and 8.6m transactions, respectively, over the same period. Rival layer-1 blockchain Aptos posted 3.8m on August 11.

The number of active addresses on Ethereum has been largely unchanged since 2018, fluctuating between 400,000 and 600,000 with occasional spikes above 1m.

Falling fees on Ethereum’s mainnet have been evident since 2022. The trend was compounded by the Dencun upgrade in March 2024, which significantly lowered transaction costs for L2 solutions.

The upgrade encouraged users to migrate to cheaper solutions to avoid high mainnet fees — during periods of congestion they could reach $50 per transaction.

High-throughput layer-1 blockchains such as Solana and Sui are also competing for market share and user attention. That is forcing the Ethereum Foundation to adapt and revisit its scaling roadmap.

Polygon Labs chief Marc Boiron told Cointelegraph that attempting to compete directly with new L1s on metrics such as throughput could prove “dangerous” for Ethereum.

Ethereum price to reach $15,000

Fundstrat forecast a rise in Ethereum’s price to $15,000 by the end of 2025. Co-founder Tom Lee said the asset will be “the biggest macro trade” over the next 10–15 years.

He stressed that advances in artificial intelligence and Wall Street’s wider embrace of blockchain technology will help.

Sean Farrell, head of digital-asset research at Fundstrat, noted that ether could reach $12,000–15,000 by year-end, so “the upside remains substantial”.

Lee said Wall Street’s interest will be stoked by forthcoming stablecoin regulation and the SEC Project Crypto, an initiative aimed at modernising the agency. He added that most “stablecoins” and the projects of major financial firms are built on Ethereum.

The expert also noted that, since the start of the year, Ethereum has outperformed bitcoin: +28% versus +18%.

USDC’s link to future Ethereum growth

Over the past month, Circle has minted 5.5bn USDC on the Solana network. According to Lookonchain analysts, the influx of new capital could act as a catalyst for a higher ether price.

Want to know where the price of $ETH is heading? Watch the $USDC mints.

In the past month, #Circle minted 5.5B $USDC on #Solana!

Freshly minted $USDC means new money is flooding the market, a powerful catalyst for a higher price of major assets like $ETH.… pic.twitter.com/HfXa3pQyYk

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 14, 2025

“Want to know where the price of ETH is heading? Watch USDC issuance,” advised Lookonchain.

Earlier, a crypto trader under the pseudonym Yashasedu said that the second-largest cryptocurrency would reach $8,500 if bitcoin exceeds $150,000.