Just so happens to be the time when Ethereum peaked at $4,201.46 on August 9th 2025. This was a very substantial 7.84% jump over a 24 hour day. That price increase is pretty shocking. This is all going on as buyer speculators in the NFT sector on Ethereum blockchain drops off a cliff. Institutional interest in Ethereum is ramping up. More than 18 publicly traded companies are now sitting on more than $500 million worth of ETH individually.
Ethereum’s price increase indicates that we are approaching a tipping point. More balanced, confident, and mainstream investment in cryptocurrency might be just around the corner. This is a stark departure from previous market cycles that were marked by much more rampant speculative behavior.
Wash trading on the Ethereum network has dropped to almost zero. It has dropped by 61.64% to $5.5 million, indicating a decrease in pattern trading and other forms of manipulative trading.
Looking beyond the encouraging price appreciation, the Ethereum network continues to see a drop in the number of unique Ethereum buyers and sellers. That’s the sign of a shrinking pool of potential market entrants.
The most important event in the NFT space was CryptoPunks 1021 selling for 720 ETH, or $2,569,908. This sale marks a new high for the collection.
That wasn’t all, as the larger CryptoPunks collection took a big hit. Sales decreased 43.68% to $11.4 million with transactions, buyers and sellers all decreasing as well.
Arthur Hayes, former co-founder of BitMEX and a notable influencer in the cryptocurrency space, recently made his return to the market by buying Ethereum. Hayes was the one who initially warned Ethereum would drop to $3,000.
This recent spike in Ethereum’s price is a far cry from the decreasing activity seen within the NFT space. The participation drop signals a growing gap in a bifurcating market.
The call competing trends bell, however, hints at a possible rotation of capital within the crypto space. One possibility is that investors are starting to move away from NFTs and back toward established cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum.
The jump in institutional holdings is a powerful endorsement to this narrative, re-stamping Ethereum’s reputation as one of the two major digital assets. This is all likely adding to its price strength.
