Ethereum briefly climbed above $1,600 after corporate treasury firms expanded their Ether holdings, but the rally quickly lost momentum as sellers pushed the token back below the key psychological mark.
According to company announcements, institutional buying gathered pace after Bitmine Immersion Technologies disclosed that it had increased its Ethereum treasury to 5.70 million ETH, equivalent to about 4.7% of the circulating supply.
The company also said around $7.7 billion worth of those holdings are staked through its Made in America Validator Network, a strategy it estimates could generate roughly $246 million in annualised staking rewards.
Coming shortly after Bitmine joined the Russell 1000 Large Cap Index, the update reinforced the view among investors that public companies are increasingly treating Ether as a long term treasury asset while also helping secure the network through staking.
Fresh buying also emerged from SharpLink Gaming, which disclosed that it had acquired 39,196 ETH worth about $62.4 million over three days through a mix of over the counter deals and direct purchases.
The accumulation lifted SharpLink’s treasury to nearly 876,000 ETH, keeping it behind only Bitmine among publicly listed corporate Ether holders.
Corporate interest coincided with progress across the Ethereum ecosystem.
Bitmine, SharpLink, and Ethereum co founder Joseph Lubin launched Ethlabs, a research and development non profit focused on advancing the network, while Ethereum developers moved the upcoming Glamsterdam hard fork into devnet testing with features including enshrined proposer builder separation and block-level access lists aimed at improving efficiency and reducing transaction costs.
At the same time, optimism around the US GENIUS Act, the SEC’s Project Crypto initiative and the Bank of England’s softer approach to stablecoin rules improved sentiment toward blockchain infrastructure that depends heavily on Ethereum as a settlement layer.
Despite those catalysts, the rally proved short-lived. Ethereum briefly traded near $1,630 before retreating below $1,600, with CoinGecko data showing the token changing hands around $1,586 at the time of writing.
According to market data, the rejection came as Ethereum encountered heavy resistance near the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level around $1,619 after a relief rally from deeply oversold conditions.
ETH/USD 4-h price chart. Source: TradingView.
The token remains almost 50% below its yearly opening price and has lost nearly 22% over the past month, suggesting the underlying trend has yet to improve.
Additional pressure came from institutional fund flows.
US spot Ether ETFs have recorded seven straight weeks of net outflows, while continued redemptions from major products such as BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust have outweighed isolated treasury purchases.
Can Ethereum recover from here?
Ethereum’s daily chart continued to show a weak technical structure despite the recent bounce.
The token remains below its 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day exponential moving averages, which currently sit near $1,669, $1,824, $2,002, and $2,288.
ETH/USD 1-day price chart. Source: TradingView.
Trading below all four moving averages means sellers are continuing to control the broader trend, and the 20 day EMA around $1,669 remains the first resistance level that buyers would need to reclaim to strengthen the short-term outlook.
The 14-day relative strength index has recovered from deeply oversold levels to around 35.6, indicating that selling pressure has eased but buyers have yet to regain momentum.
Price action also continues to form lower highs and lower lows, leaving the broader downtrend intact unless Ethereum reclaims its shorter-term moving averages.
Derivatives positioning also offered little sign of renewed conviction. Open interest data showed total Ethereum open interest at about $9.4 billion, while perpetual contract open interest slipped 0.46% over the past 24 hours.
Futures open interest rose 1.8%, although the overall decline suggested traders were reducing leveraged exposure rather than building fresh bullish positions.
As such, it is safe to say that the recent rebound has lacked strong participation from derivatives traders, which has significantly reduced the likelihood of a sustained breakout without fresh buying interest.
For Ethereum to show the first signs of a sustained recovery, it may need to reclaim the $1,750 level, according to crypto analyst Daan Crypto Trades.
ETH/USD weekly price chart. Source: Daan Crypto Trades on X.
The analyst said ETH has repeatedly failed to reclaim former support levels after losing them, keeping the higher-timeframe trend weak.
A break below the $1,500 support area, meanwhile, could open the door to a retest of the April 2025 lows.
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