ETH Surges Past $3K as Glassnode Flags Rare Flip in Futures Volume Over Bitcoin

At the time of writing, Ether ETH$1,977.49 was trading at $3,012, up 8.22% in the past 24-hour period, according to CoinDesk Research's technical analysis model. The broader crypto market, as gauged by the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), was up 6.39% during the same period.

In a recently-released research paper titled "Blockchains as Emerging Economies", the world's third largest asset manager explained how "ether can serve as a medium of exchange and store of value."

Also, in a blog post published Thursday, the Etheruem Foundation announced plans to integrate zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs throughout the Ethereum stack, starting with a Layer 1 zkEVM. Initially, validators will be able to choose clients that verify multiple offchain execution proofs from different zkVMs, rather than re-executing blocks. This setup leverages Ethereum’s existing client diversity model for added security, with minimal protocol changes needed to support pipelined execution in the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade.

Although adoption of ZK clients will start small, it’s expected to grow as trust builds. When a majority of validators are confident in ZK proofs, Ethereum can increase the gas limit and shift to proof verification as the default.

To enable this shift, the Foundation is defining “realtime proving” standards for zkVM developers. These include 10-second latency for 99% of blocks, open-source code, minimum 128-bit security, sub-300KiB proofs without trusted setups, and hardware limits of $100K in cost and 10kW in power use — making home proving feasible.

While proving in the cloud is already affordable, the emphasis is on optimizing for decentralized, at-home setups. The Foundation expects ongoing innovation toward these goals ahead of Devconnect Argentina, with zkVMs poised to become critical infrastructure for Ethereum’s future.

Finally, yesterday, lockchain analytics platform Glassnode noted a rare occurrence in the derivatives market: ether's 24-hour futures trading volume briefly surpassed that of Bitcoin. According to the firm, ETH futures notched $62.1 billion in daily volume, edging out Bitcoin’s $61.7 billion.

Technical Analysis Highlights

• ETH exhibited extraordinary bullish momentum during the past 24 hours from 10 July 09:00 to 11 July 08:00, rocketing from $2,788.96 to $2,976.10, delivering a 7.10% gain with an overall range of $266.73.
• The most explosive price action materialized at 21:00 on 10 July, where ETH launched from $2,819.79 to $2,972.56 on exceptional volume of 1,202,822 units — nearly four times the 24-hour average of 308,041 units.
• Critical resistance surfaced at $3,027.83 during the 05:00 hour with heightened volume of 529,411 units, while the asset sustained consolidation above $2,950.00 throughout the second half of the period.
• Robust high-volume support formed around $2,818.00 indicating continued institutional accumulation and potential for additional upside momentum.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.