ETH Perp Volume Crushes BTC for First Time Since 2022 – Can BlackRock Buying Spree Push Ethereum Past $4,000?

Ethereum (ETH) perpetual futures volume has surged ahead of Bitcoin (BTC) for the first time since the 2022 market cycle bottom, creating the most significant volume imbalance favoring ETH in recorded history.

Data from Glassnode reveals that ETH global perpetual futures volume commanded the market with $90.82 billion, while Bitcoin trailed at $82.93 billion.

#Ethereum perp volume dominance has recently overtaken #Bitcoin for the first time since the 2022 cycle low – marking the largest volume skew in $ETH favor on record. This shift confirms a meaningful rotation of speculative interest toward the #altcoin sector. pic.twitter.com/Wm5bmPaaed

— glassnode (@glassnode) July 29, 2025

This development indicates a substantial shift in speculative attention toward the altcoin ecosystem, fueling widespread expectations that Ethereum could breach the $4,000 threshold imminently.

BlackRock’s $1.2B Accumulation Spree Supports Ethereum to $4,000 Target

The optimistic outlook has gained momentum through institutional capital flows, with BlackRock leading an unprecedented Ethereum acquisition campaign that saw the asset manager purchase over four times more ETH than BTC during the previous week.

Between July 21 and 27, BlackRock acquired more than $1.2 billion worth of ETH, compared to just $267 million in Bitcoin purchases.

BLACKROCK BOUGHT OVER 4X AS MUCH ETH VS BTC LAST WEEK

BlackRock purchased over $1.2 BILLION of ETH last week, against only $267M of BTC.

This is what it looks like when institutions allocate to ETH. pic.twitter.com/G7uh860hLR

— Arkham (@arkham) July 29, 2025

This institutional appetite has been reinforced by substantial accumulation from major players, including Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies, Sharplink Gaming’s multi-billion-dollar Ethereum holdings, and ETH Strategy’s recent $46.5 million fundraising initiative to expand ETH token acquisitions.

Most recently, World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture associated with U.S. President Donald Trump, maintained its aggressive Ethereum accumulation approach by purchasing an additional $1 million worth of ETH on July 29.

Additionally, on July 30, Marti Technologies, a Turkish ride-hailing company, disclosed that 20% of its cash reserves are now allocated to digital assets, encompassing Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

Futures Market Interest Propels Analysts to Predict $4,000 ETH Breakout

Ethereum’s open interest dominance has also climbed to nearly 40%, marking its highest point since April 2023.

This represents a clear transition in speculative focus, with capital flowing from Bitcoin to Ethereum at the margins.

Santiment analytics indicate that over the past two weeks, Bitcoin wallets containing at least 1,000 BTC decreased by 1.61%.

Conversely, Ethereum wallets holding at least 10,000 ETH increased by 8.00% during the same period.

This enhanced ETH/BTC dominance has enabled the asset to recover from its yearly low of $1,383.26, reaching a 2025 peak of $3,941.86 on July 28.

Numerous cryptocurrency traders and expert analysts are now anticipating an ETH price breakthrough above $4,000.

gold vs eth

if we follow this fractal, we should top around $4k and then a pullback to $3k followed by news highs in Q4 https://t.co/91ZmrrziYF pic.twitter.com/gHi5HzfOs5

— Honey (@honey_xbt) July 21, 2025

Altcoin investor “Altcoin Gordon” shares his bullish sentiment, describing ETH as “a beach ball underwater right now.”

He predicts that once ETH breaks $4,000, the rally to $5,000 will be “fast and VIOLENT.”

Technical Analysis Points to Ethereum $4,000 Triangle Breakout

The monthly chart of Ethereum (ETH/USD) from TradingView shows a significant bullish breakout attempt from a multi-year symmetrical triangle pattern.

The price has surged by over 51% in July 2025, closing near $3,766 and approaching a key horizontal resistance zone at $3,859, marked by a previous swing high.

The triangle pattern, bounded by a gradually rising support trendline and a descending resistance trendline from the all-time high, has compressed price action since late 2021.

ETH is now testing the upper boundary of this structure.

A clean breakout above this resistance zone could open the door for higher targets, with Fibonacci extensions indicating possible upside levels around $4,228 (3.618 Fib) and $4,698 (4.236 Fib), with the $3,467 (2.618 Fib) already cleared intramonth.

The RSI indicator on the monthly timeframe is reinforcing this bullish setup.

After months of sideways action below 50, the RSI has triggered a fresh buy signal by crossing above its moving average and is now sitting at 60.09. This same RSI crossover pattern previously preceded the early 2023 rally.

A monthly close above the $3,850–$4,000 resistance range would confirm the breakout and likely trigger a rally toward the $4,200–$4,700 area.

However, failure to sustain above this range could lead to a retest of the lower trendline near $2,700. For now, momentum and structure favor the bulls.