EthereumMarkets
|3 min ReadWhy Ethereum’s next leg could be its strongest yet
Maya Chen
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
Ethereum cleared 4,603 at the time of writing, up almost 4 percent on the day and more than 7 percent on the week, according to CoinGecko. Analysts at CryptoQuant say this run is different. Treasury companies are accumulating. Spot ETFs are pulling in flows. Staking demand is exploding.
Why the bid is building
Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, points to synchronized accumulation by large allocators. He calls it a shift in how institutions view ETH. “This synchronized accumulation indicates that Ethereum is increasingly viewed as a long-term strategic asset by large capital allocators, similar to Bitcoin’s trajectory post-ETF approval,” he wrote. He adds that this level of endorsement is a strong long-term tailwind for price and legitimacy.
Whales are not just taking profit. Some are adding. One large holder moved $645 million in ETH specifically to stake. Exchange inflows are down, which eases sell pressure. On-chain realized price bands now sit overhead. Moreno warns that consolidation or a pullback is likely unless ETH breaks those bands with conviction. The signal is clear. The buyers are serious. The resistance is known.
Staking, queues, and futures heat
Staking is surging. The validator entry queue hit a two-year high on Tuesday. About 860,000 ETH, roughly $3.7 billion at today’s prices, waits in line, according to validator provider Everstake. Capacity constraints matter. No more than 1,800 validators can exit daily, and only 900 can enter, says Illia Otychenko of CEX.IO. Processing the backlog could take around 14 days. That bottleneck tightens float. It also anchors long-term supply dynamics as more ETH gets locked.
Derivatives confirm the mood. Open interest across futures and options rose 3.4 percent in the past day. Total ETH open interest now stands at $62.45 billion, per CoinGlass. More leverage cuts both ways. It magnifies breakouts. It punishes weak hands. The next decisive move will draw fuel from that stack.
The market’s bet
Cash is not the only vote. Prediction markets are leaning hard to the upside. On Myriad, users betting ETH hits
3,500 climbed from about 61 percent at the start of the week to 73 percent now. You can see the market pricing the path in real time. The crowd believes the break comes sooner rather than later.Here is the read. Institutions are stacking. ETFs are absorbing. Staking queues are swelling. Futures interest is rising. Resistance is close. If ETH clears it, the cycle accelerates. If not, we consolidate and try again. Either way, the structure looks stronger than past runs.
Disclaimer: This document is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be taken as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, which are not considered here, before investing. This document is not an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned.