Is This the Biggest Bullish Divergence for Ethereum’s Price in July?

While Ethereum’s price remained subdued throughout June, data reveals a different story for the network itself. Beneath the surface, metrics quietly reached historic highs.

That quiet gave way to movement as July began, with the entire crypto market lifting on news of the US trade deal with Vietnam and a rise in the M2 money supply.

On July 3, ETH saw a sharp 6% gain in 24 hours, trading above $2,600, hinting that the market may finally be waking up to the underlying strength steadily building within the network.

Staking and Accumulation Hit Records

Accumulation addresses, which exclude centralized exchanges and maintain minimal outflows, reached a record 22.7465 million ETH held as of June 30. This figure represented almost 36% increase from 16.7281 million ETH on June 1, according to the ETH Cohort Study shared by CryptoQuant.

These wallets logged their highest single-month purchases as well, adding 6.0184 million ETH in June. The realized price for these addresses stood at $2,114.70 on July 1, while ETH traded at $2,565 on July 2, which gave holders an unrealized gain of 21.29%.

Liquid staking also posted new records, as it grew from 34.5461 million on June 1 to 35.5265 million ETH by June 30. Interestingly, this is an increase of nearly one million in a month and a 2.83% gain, and marks the largest monthly staking growth on record for Ethereum.

By July 1, liquid staking hit another all-time high at 35.5644 million ETH. The surge can be attributed to institutional investors, ETFs, and large holders accumulating ETH and opting for yield while awaiting price appreciation. Protocols like Lido and Binance ETH Staking have emerged as key beneficiaries due to their scale and features that attract institutional flows.

Despite ETH’s price staying below bullish expectations throughout last month, CryptoQuant explained that these accumulation and staking trends pointed to a strong institutional confidence in the altcoin’s long-term outlook. The record levels of locked ETH and continued accumulation indicate the market may be positioning for a more upward move.

Building on this momentum, Ethereum is now catching the eye of corporate treasuries.

Ethereum’s Treasury Era Begins

As CryptoPotato had recently reported, the project may be entering its own “MicroStrategy era” as corporations begin stacking ETH for treasury strategies, seeking yield alongside reserve asset growth.

BitMine and SharpLink are leading this shift. The latter, for one, is planning a $250 million ETH allocation and adopting an “ETH per share” model.

Tom Lee notes that Ethereum will benefit as stablecoin adoption rises and finance moves on-chain. Meanwhile, Joe Lubin’s SharpLink raised $425 million to stack and stake ETH. Industry watchers believe this is the start of a wave of Ethereum treasury companies, with firms waking up to ETH’s dual role as a reserve asset and yield generator.