Ether Demand Is Driven by U.S. Investors, Data Shows

Ether's 11% rally in the past week was spurred by buying pressure in the U.S., data from CryptoQuant that tracks local exchange activity shows.

A spike in demand from the regulated exchange Coinbase (COIN), most prominent in the U.S., preceded a jump in ether (ETH) prices, according to the "Coinbase premium," an indicator showing the gap between Coinbase's ETH/U.S. dollar pair and Binance's ETH/USDT pair.

"The recent Ethereum price action was driven by the US demand," CryptoQuant's head of marketing, Ho Chan Chung, said in a Telegram message. "We can clearly see that the Coinbase has triggered the upward movement with the premium index."

The metric is starting to rise again, suggesting a sign of more price gains in the coming weeks.

While Coinbase is more popular among crypto traders in the U.S. and Europe, Binance, which started in China, is among the most popular exchanges among traders in Asia.

Anticipation of approval for a possible spot ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. may have sparked buying demand for the asset in the region. Experienced and profitable traders first started ramping up exposure to ETH in January.

While interest in ether bets has risen significantly, an ETF could create sustained rather than explosive growth for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, some traders said. As of Tuesday, Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, Fidelity, Ark and 21Shares, Grayscale, VanEck, Invesco and Galaxy, and Hashdex had submitted applications for an ether ETF.

ETH has gained 6.5% in the past 24 hours, while the CD20 gauge of the broader market has added 8.1%.