News recap: what will happen to the price of Ether after ETH-ETF approval

Crypto market in numbers

Since 24th April, the crypto market capitalisation has grown by 9.24% to $2.6 trillion, just 6.1% away from its all-time high. This acceleration has been driven mainly by news of the imminent approval of a spot ETH-ETF, with altcoins, rather than BTC leading the charge.

Trading activity surged significantly towards the end of May. Until 20th May, average daily volumes were in the $50-100 billion range. However, after the ETH-ETF news speculation, volumes soared to $168 billion, breaking the downward trend of the previous month. Traders are returning to the market.

The Cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index has returned to the “Extreme Greed” zone. Over the past month, the index dropped to 43 points but quickly rebounded to the early April level of 75 points.

Cryptocurrency volatility has also increased. Since 24th April, the 30-day BTC volatility index rose from 2.16% to 2.22%, a 2.7% increase. The same index for ETH jumped from 2.82% to 3.56%, a 26.24% increase.

The speculation around the spot ETH-ETF approval on 20th May significantly boosted the crypto market, pushing ETH up by more than 24% in just a few days. Analysts at EXMO.com warn that after the official ETF approval, there is a high likelihood of a “Sell the News” reaction in the short term and sharp price movements for ether within the $3,650 – $4,150 range.

So far, May is defying historical trends (where 60% of the time, the market has declined this month) by showing a 17% growth. The following month is statistically more favourable, but the average growth over the past 11 years is only 0.25%. A cyclical drop in trading volumes is expected during the summer.

Gainers (6th – 20th May 2024)

Losers (6th – 20th May 2024)

Easily track gainers and losers within the Simple Trade section on EXMO. Check real-time updates in the last 24 hours, week and month.

Most traded coins (6th – 20th May 2024)

Top crypto market driving factors

Overall сrypto market

▲ 02.05.2024 – Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, reported a record profit of $4.52 billion for the first quarter of 2024.

▲ 02.05.2024 – In April, trading volume on centralised crypto exchanges reached $1.6 trillion, the second-highest of the year.

▲ 09.05.2024 – MasterCard and major U.S. banks started testing an interbank tokenised settlement system.

▲ 09.05.2024 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal an SEC rule that prevented heavily regulated financial firms from holding cryptocurrency on their balance sheets.

▼ 10.05.2024 – Deutsche Bank analysts consider Tether’s solvency “questionable” and believe the USDT stablecoin might fail.

▼ 13.05.2024 – According to Santiment, most cryptocurrencies are seeing sell-offs, with crowd sentiment becoming more bearish.

Bitcoin (BTC)

▲ 26.04.2024 – Bitcoin set a new record for daily transactions with 927,010 transactions.

26.04.2024 – According to Santiment, whale activity in BTC has been declining despite local spikes observed since early March.

▲ 03.05.2024 – CryptoQuant reports that whales have been actively buying BTC recently, purchasing 47,000 BTC in the last 24 hours.

▼ 09.05.2024 – Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped significantly by 5.62% following the second post-halving adjustment.

▼ 14.05.2024 – According to CryptoQuant, purchases by short-term holders with balances of 1,000+ BTC have been declining since mid-March.

▲ 16.05.2024 – Traders expect BTC to return to highs amid positive U.S. inflation reports in the coming weeks.

▲ 16.05.2024 – Vetle Lunde, a K33 Research analyst, noted that 937 professional market participants invested in spot bitcoin ETFs in the first quarter.

▲ 20.05.2024 – The bitcoin balance on centralised exchanges continues to drop rapidly, hitting a five-year low of 2.3 million BTC.

Ethereum (ETH)

▼ 09.05.2024 – The Dencun update made ETH inflationary again, potentially threatening its status as “ultrasound money.”

▼ 13.05.2024 – Kryptanium Capital predicts that ETH could drop to $2,600.

▲ 20.05.2024 – ETF Store President, Nate Geraci, announced that the SEC will decide on a spot ETH-ETF by 25th May 2024.

▲ 21.05.2024 – The SEC requested exchanges update 19b-4 forms for the spot ETH-ETF ahead of the key deadline, indicating possible progress towards approval, though not guaranteed.

▲ 21.05.2024 – Grayscale has just submitted an updated 19b-4 form for Ethereum Mini Trust.

▲ 21.05.2024 – Standard Chartered expects the spot ETH-ETF to be approved this week and maintains a year-end ETH target price of $8,000.

▲ 21.05.2024 – 90% of ETH holders are currently in profit.

▲ 21.05.2024 – In the last 24 hours, ETH whales bought over 110,000 ETH, worth around $341 million.

▲ 22.05.2024 – According to CryptoQuant, long-term holders have significantly increased their ETH purchases.

▲ 22.05.2024 – VanEck’s spot ETH-ETF appeared on the DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) website, which clears trades on NASDAQ.

▲ 24.05.2024 – SEC approved spot ETH-ETF.

Solana (SOL)

▲ 02.05.2024 – Solana partnered with Google Cloud in the crypto gaming sector.

▲ 16.05.2024 – Merkle Tree Capital predicts Solana will rise to $400 in November 2024.

▲ 17.05.2024 – The Solana network became the fastest among major blockchains, with TPS (transactions per second) reaching a record 1,504 amid the meme coin boom.

Cardano (ADA)

▲ 26.04.2024 – The average volume of large transactions on the Cardano blockchain over the past seven days was $13.84 billion per day.

Toncoin (TON)

▲ 02.05.2024 – Pantera Capital invested over $250 million in TON.

Sui (SUI)

▲ 30.04.2024 – Sui partnered with Google Cloud in the field of Web3 innovations.

▲ 07.05.2024 – Sui, with over 40 million transactions per day, has significantly outpaced all existing Layer 1 blockchains.

EXMO.com News

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