• CROSS and ECHO soar over 50% amid broad market declines.
• Ongoing Binance Alpha trading competition keeps the tokens afloat.
• SharpLink becomes the largest Ethereum holder among corporate entities with over 280K ETH assets.

Digital currencies displayed weakness on Tuesday as the global cryptocurrency market cap plunged 3% in the past day to $3.69 trillion.

While altcoins eye rapid bounce-backs after the corrections, Cross, ECHO, and Ethereum dominated today’s trends for different reasons.

CROSS and ECHO have rallied up to 60%, fueled by the ongoing trading competition of Binance Alpha.

On the other hand, SharpLink has become the top corporate Ethereum holder after the latest accumulation.

Binance Alpha ignites altcoin momentum

The leading exchange officially started its BNB Smart Chain Trading Competition via Binance Alpha.

The tournament allows users to share exclusive rewards by trading various coins.

The competition will run from 10 July to 21 July, featuring MemeCore (M), Infinity Ground (AIN), Echo Protocol (ECHO), MEET48 (IDOL), and CROSS.

The altcoins reflect excitement with bullish price actions, displaying upside momentum despite broad market weakness.

CROSS and ECHO have stolen the show with remarkable rallies in the past 24 hours.

The duo witnessed a surge in trade volume and user engagement amid Binance’s trading campaign.

The CROSS Trading Pool features 10 million tokens for the top 11,000 participants, whereas ECHO offers 10 million ECHO tokens to the top 5,000 traders.

ECHO hovers at $0.02380 after gaining more than 55% in the past 24 hours.

Its daily trading volume has increased by 240%, signaling massive interest in the token.

Also, CROSS gained 58% to trade at $0.2116, with a 110% uptick in 24-hour trading volume.

SharpLink: the new Ethereum corporate whale

While traders explored fast-moving tokens, another key development emerged behind the scenes.

The gaming firm has become the largest corporate Ethereum investor, with 280,706 Ether tokens.

That follows the latest acquisition, which saw SharpLink purchase 74,656 ETH, worth approximately $213 million, between 7 and 13 July.

Moreover, the company’s strategy demonstrates confidence in the second-largest cryptocurrency by value.

Notably, it has staked 99.7% of its Ethereum stash, generating passive incentives.

SharpLink has earned around 415 Ether through staking since early June.

SharpLink pivoted into crypto in May after confirming the adoption of ETH as a treasury reserve asset.

Ethereum crossed $3,000 on Monday as Bitcoin rallied to new all-time highs of $123,000.

It trades at $3,050 at this publication, up 20% in the past week.

Analysts anticipated more uptrends toward the $3,500 resistance.

Some believe ETH will rally to $5,000 this summer.

Furthermore, proponents predict an imminent altcoin season as the current market structure mirrors 2021.

Crypto enthusiast Merlijn the Trader anticipates more than 10x from altcoins in the impending bull run.

The crypto space is on the verge of another potentially historic moment with the first Ethereum Futures ETF in the US. Volatility Shares, a pioneer in the ETF space, has announced its intention to launch the Ether Strategy ETF (Ticker: ETHU) on October 12, 2023. If all goes as planned, this could mark the first Ether based exchange traded fund (ETF) in the United States.

First Ethereum Futures ETF Is Set To Launch In The US

Volatility Shares has positioned the ETF around cash-settled Ethereum futures contracts trading on the CBOE. Notably, the ETF avoids direct investment in Ether itself. “The Fund is an exchange-traded fund that seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing its assets principally in cash-settled contracts referencing Ether… The Fund does not invest directly in Ether,” reads the SEC filing.

Stuart Barton, the CIO of Volatility Shares, voiced his optimism, saying, “Volatility Shares successfully launched the first 2x Bitcoin-linked ETF (BITX) in July and believes that ETHU is the next logical step before turning our forces to spot markets.”

Eric Balchunas, senior ETF Analyst for Bloomberg, weighed in on the audacity of Volatility Shares’ aggressive timeline: “VolatilityShares announcing they intend to list their Ether Futures ETF on Oct 12th (which would be a day or two ahead of the rest of pack (if the 75 days is adhered to).. they did same thing w $BITX”.

When prompted on the likelihood of SEC’s approval, he remarked, “Well, there’s been no withdrawals so SEC looks to be okay with them … he’s probably just pushing the envelope like he did w BITX”.

While Volatility Shares leads the pack, they’re not alone in this pursuit. A total of 13 heavyweight financial institutions, including names like Bitwise, VanEck, Vakyrie, Roubhill, ProShares, and Grayscale, have sought the US SEC’s blessings for their Ether Futures ETFs. However, as of now, the SEC hasn’t given its green signal to any.

Will Ether Echo BTC’s 2021 Surge?

Remarkably, the first Bitcoin futures ETF in the US was launched back on October 19, 2021. At that time, ProShares won the race for the first mover effect. And this has paid off. The total assets in Bitcoin futures ETFs accounts to $1.3 billion. Of that, nearly $1.1 billion is in the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO). The second largest ETF is the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF with $73 million. No other ETF has more than $50 million in assets under management.

When the first Bitcoin futures ETF was launched, BTC was in the midst of the 2021 bull run. In the run-up to the futures ETF launch, BTC put on a 60% rally from Oct. 1 to Oct. 19, rising 60% to $66,970. In the next seven subsequent days, BTC saw a correction of about 14% before Bitcoin continued its rally to the all-time high near $69,000.

Whether the ETH price will experience a similar euphoria as Bitcoin in 2021 remains to be seen. At least the environment is different. While BTC was in a full blown bull market, the crypto market is currently in a phase of stagnation, possibly before the start of a new bull market. However, without a doubt, the first Ethereum Futures ETF has the potential to be a catalyst for the ETH price.

At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $1,826, just above the key support of the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level.

Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com