ETH gently rises, masking strong fundamentals. Why are institutional investments and technical upgrades so robust?

ETH has increased by 1.18% within 24 hours on January 5, currently trading at $3,184.04. Although the gain appears modest, there is a deeper story behind it: sustained strengthening of fundamentals, accelerated institutional capital deployment, and positive on-chain data. From stablecoins, developers, and RWA to technological upgrades, all clues point in the same direction — Ethereum is transforming from an application platform into a financial infrastructure.

Price Trends and Market Performance

According to the latest data, ETH’s gains are stronger than when the news was first released. As of January 5, ETH price is $3,209.06, with a 24-hour increase of 2.04%, and a 7-day increase of 7.71%. This indicates that while daily gains are moderate, Ethereum is in a stable upward channel.

In terms of market size, ETH’s market cap is approximately $38.732 billion, accounting for 12.21% of the entire crypto market, maintaining its second-place position. The 24-hour trading volume reached $15.19 billion, indicating sufficient market liquidity. Regarding key technical levels, ETH has broken through the 21-day moving average and is competing for the critical resistance at $3,100. A breakthrough could lead to new highs.

Why Are the Fundamentals So Strong?

Stablecoins Reach New Highs

Ethereum’s total stablecoin transfer volume in Q4 2024 first surpassed $8 trillion, setting a new record. More importantly, Ethereum’s on-chain issuance share in the stablecoin sector has exceeded 54%, far surpassing Tron’s 26.07%, Solana’s 5.03%, and BSC’s 4.74%.

What does this mean? Over half of global stablecoin transactions are conducted on Ethereum. This not only reflects Ethereum’s network effect but also indicates that institutional-level payment settlements are now a de facto standard on Ethereum. Stablecoins have evolved from speculative tools into real payment infrastructure, with Ethereum serving as the core network supporting these applications.

Developers Hit New Quarterly High

In Q4 2025, Ethereum deployed a total of 8.7 million smart contracts, setting a quarterly record. What does this number reflect? Accelerated progress across multiple tracks such as DApp development, RWA tokenization, stablecoin applications, and infrastructure expansion.

Meanwhile, Aave’s ETH deposits on the Ethereum mainnet have reached a historical high, exceeding 3 million ETH and continuing toward 4 million. This demonstrates strong demand for liquidity mining and yield generation, further boosting ETH’s practical application value.

Accelerated Institutional Capital Deployment

Strategic ETH reserve entities and spot ETFs hold a combined total of about 12.99 million ETH, accounting for 10.74% of Ethereum’s total supply, with a total value of approximately $40.9 billion. Among them, strategic reserve entities hold 6.81 million ETH (5.63%), and spot ETFs hold 6.18 million ETH (5.11%).

More symbolically, Blue Origin announced acceptance of ETH payments for space travel costs. This not only signifies recognition of cryptocurrencies by traditional companies but also demonstrates real-world application of Ethereum’s payment capabilities. Ether.fi CEO expects crypto-based banks to become a core driver of Ethereum’s growth in 2026, with institutional tools like Digital Asset Treasury (DATs) already adopted by multiple organizations.

RWA Sector Has Clear Advantages

On-chain tokenized assets on Ethereum amount to about $12.5 billion, holding over 65% of the market share, far higher than competing networks like BNB Chain, Solana, and Arbitrum. Tokenized gold trading is particularly prominent, with trading volume rising from $1 billion at the start of the year to over $4 billion, almost all concentrated within the Ethereum ecosystem.

This trend clearly indicates that institutional investors view Ethereum as the preferred settlement layer for tokenized real-world assets, providing a practical foundation for ETH’s long-term value creation.

Positive Signals from On-Chain Data

In terms of staking, over 35.5 million ETH are staked, approximately 29% of the total supply. The validator queue on Ethereum has grown to about 977,000 ETH, with new validators expected to wait nearly 17 days before activation. This reflects strong market confidence in ETH’s long-term value, with institutional-level staking continuing to accelerate.

Bitmine has recently accelerated staking, with a total staked ETH of 544,064, valued at about $1.7 billion at current prices. Such large-scale institutional staking further reinforces Ethereum’s role as a store of value and yield-generating tool.

Clear Roadmap for Technological Upgrades

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin confirmed that ZK-EVM has entered the alpha stage with production-level performance, and PeerDAS has officially launched on the mainnet. These are not incremental optimizations but represent a transformation of Ethereum into a new network form that combines decentralization, consensus mechanisms, and high throughput.

According to the technical roadmap, starting around 2026, mechanisms like BAL and ePBS will gradually increase the Gas limit; between 2026-2028, Gas re-pricing and state structure adjustments will occur; by 2027-2030, ZK-EVM is expected to become the primary method for network validation, further driving Gas limit increases. These developments provide clear technical support for Ethereum’s long-term scalability.

Summary

While ETH’s 1.18% daily increase is moderate, the fundamental support behind it is far more convincing than the numbers suggest. The four engines of stablecoins, developers, institutions, and RWA are operating simultaneously; on-chain data shows continuous growth in staking and validator queues; and the technological upgrade roadmap is clear. All these factors point to a conclusion: Ethereum is upgrading from an application platform to a global financial infrastructure.

In the short term, the key resistance level is at $3,100; breaking through this could lead to new highs. In the medium to long term, strong fundamentals and ongoing institutional deployment provide a solid value foundation for ETH. For long-term holders, the current moderate gains may be the perfect window for institutions to quietly deploy.