Ether price nears $4,000 as market awaits Ethereum ETFs going live

The price of ether is rallying toward the $4,000 mark just days after eight Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were approved and ahead of their pending launches.

Ether has risen to its current value of $3,932, up around 3.4% over the last 24 hours, and up 35% over the last fortnite, according to The Block's Price Page. It was last above the $4,000 mark in March.

The price action may have stemmed from former President and current 2024 leading Republican candidate Donald Trump's pro-crypto comments over the weekend, according to crypto market-making firm QCP Capital.

Trump voiced his clearest support of crypto yet in a post on Truth Social that he shared shortly before his scheduled appearance at the Libertarian National Convention. "I am very positive and open minded to cryptocurrency companies, and all things related to this new and burgeoning industry," he wrote.

The price of ether has rallied over the weekend. Image: The Block's Price Page.

But the ETF approvals were clearly also in play.

"From today's price action, it seems that market participants are expressing their bullishness in ETH rather than BTC, especially with the potential institutional demand once the ETH spot ETF starts trading," said QCP Capital in its regular market update.

"While we are structurally positive ETH, we don't see a major breakout until we have more clarity on the S-1 approvals and get some inflow data, which should only be a matter of time," the company added.

Preparing for the Ethereum ETFs

Crypto traders have also expressed that the gap between the Ethereum ETF approvals and when they might start trading — which could take from weeks to months — is surprisingly positive for the cryptocurrency.

eToro analyst Simon Peters said, “With the 19b-4s out of the way, it could be an opportunity now for savvy crypto investors to buy Ethereum in anticipation of the S-1s being approved, front-running the ETFs going live and the billions of dollars potentially flowing into these.”

As for the amount of expected inflows, traders are anticipating that it might be in the region of 15-30% of what the Bitcoin ETFs saw. While the approvals came at a surprise and issuers weren't particularly ready, the delay also allows any potential inflows to get lined up too.