Here’s why traders say $10K Ethereum price is still on the table

Despite recent market volatility, prominent crypto analysts and traders maintain a strong conviction that Ethereum (ETH) is poised to reach the $10,000 mark in the current market cycle. This bullish outlook is predicated on several converging factors relating to supply mechanics, institutional demand, and critical network adoption metrics.

**1. Deflationary Supply Shock and Staking Lock-up**
The post-Merge era has fundamentally changed Ethereum’s supply dynamics. With the implementation of EIP-1559 and the transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS), ETH has become a deflationary asset during periods of high network activity. Transaction fees are burned, reducing the total circulating supply. Simultaneously, the staking mechanism has locked up approximately 25% of the total ETH supply, removing it from the liquid trading market. This scarcity model—high demand meeting restricted, often declining supply—is the primary driver fueling long-term price appreciation.

**2. The Institutional On-Ramp: Spot ETFs**
The successful launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs has set a clear precedent for regulatory acceptance of digital assets. The immediate focus has shifted to the potential approval of spot Ethereum ETFs in major jurisdictions like the U.S. Analysts anticipate that an ETF approval would unlock massive capital inflows from traditional finance (TradFi) institutions, pension funds, and wealth managers who require regulated, easily accessible exposure to crypto assets. This institutional endorsement is widely viewed as the single biggest catalyst capable of pushing ETH into five-figure territory.

**3. Layer 2 Adoption and Ecosystem Utility**
Ethereum’s core strength lies in its ecosystem utility as the foundational settlement layer for decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Recent scaling upgrades, most notably the Dencun upgrade, have drastically reduced transaction costs on Layer 2 networks (such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon). By making transactions faster and cheaper, L2s enhance Ethereum’s scalability, drawing in more retail and enterprise users. Increased utility leads directly to greater demand for ETH, which is necessary to pay for network security and decentralized services.

**4. Technical Analysis and Cycle Alignment**
From a technical perspective, $10,000 represents a crucial psychological and Fibonacci extension target. Traders often cite the 1.618 or 2.618 Fibonacci extensions applied to previous market cycles as reliable predictors for the macro peak. Once Ethereum surpasses its previous all-time high of approximately $4,891, analysts expect rapid price discovery, with little resistance until the $8,000 to $10,000 range. Furthermore, ETH tends to follow Bitcoin’s macro cycles, often experiencing its most explosive growth phase only after BTC has set new highs, a trend still anticipated to play out fully.

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