Ethereum has climbed roughly 11% over the past seven days to trade near $1,920, far outpacing Bitcoin’s 4.2% gain and leaving Solana, Hyperliquid, and TRON in negative territory. The move pushed ETH’s market cap to about $231 billion with $12 billion in daily volume, while two major catalysts — the Robinhood Chain layer-2 rollout and swelling U.S. spot Ether ETF inflows — dominated the narrative.
Robinhood Chain’s dual impact
The brokerage’s Arbitrum-based, EVM-compatible chain launched on July 1 and has already generated $816,000 in gross revenue. Robinhood kept 89% ($726,000), Arbitrum took 10% ($80,000), and Ethereum received a mere 0.15% ($1,538) for settlement. Lorenzo Valente, research director at Ark Invest, called the arrangement “ultra bullish” for those who view ETH as money, saying more activity builds more collateral and “lindyness.” However, he noted that for investors who treat ETH as a revenue-generating asset, the tiny settlement share is “the ultra-bear case.” Valente advocates a 75/10/15 split among Robinhood, Arbitrum, and Ethereum. Consensys founder Joe Lubin countered that low L1 fees will attract “tens of thousands” of companies to Ethereum L1, L2s, and permissioned EVMs, ultimately growing the monetary premium, locking supply through staking, and increasing net burns under “ultrasound” conditions. Since its launch, 82,895 ETH (around $147.5 million) has been bridged to Robinhood Chain, and the network now processes over $800 million in daily decentralized exchange volume — mostly memecoin trades — using ETH as the native gas token.
BlackRock dominates ETF inflows
U.S. spot Ether ETFs pulled in $96 million during the first three days of the week, already exceeding the previous week’s $84 million total. BlackRock’s ETHA fund led Wednesday’s $53.8 million in flows, absorbing $45.3 million alone, while its ETHB product added $4 million. That left the remaining eight funds to split less than $5 million. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s original Ether trust, with a 2.5% fee compared to BlackRock’s 0.25%, has seen $5.3 billion in outflows since launch. By contrast, Bitcoin ETFs experienced choppy flows — a $424 million loss on July 13 followed by a $181 million rebound the next day — suggesting a different investor profile.
Technical and on-chain signals
Analyst Ted Pillows flagged that ETH’s daily RSI has again crossed above 65, a level at which the price has peaking within two to three days since August 2025. He said that if Ethereum avoids another immediate top and instead consolidates, it would be the first major reversal signal since April 2025. On-chain, Lookonchain noted three new wallets withdrew 30,000 ETH ($57.66 million) from Coinbase Prime within 24 hours, and DefiLlama shows total value locked near recent highs with elevated active addresses. Resistance at $2,000 remains the immediate barrier, while the $1,874 level is key support.
