Institutional investors drive crypto market growth, Ether holdings surge 126%

Corporate holdings of Ether surged 126% in July to nearly 2.7 million Ethers, with major buyers including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Tesla, Jane Street, Mubadala Investment from Abu Dhabi, and Harvard University. These institutions continued buying in August, reflecting growing confidence in the digital asset space.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap also continues to rise, up 13% in August to nearly $4 trillion, driven not just by Bitcoin but also by altcoins such as Ethereum, Solana, and Cardano, along with stablecoins, all showing significant price gains.

Stablecoins, in particular, are seeing strong adoption, with legislation fueling nearly $2.1 trillion in monthly transfers—surpassing Visa’s monthly transaction volumes.

Beyond stablecoins, real-world asset tokenisation has expanded to a $24 billion market. NFTs, which had remained flat over the past few years, are showing signs of revival, with sales rising 50% in July.

Bitcoin mining profitability is also on the rise as prices climb, with July seeing a 2% increase. This has led to a 5% growth in hashrate, which measures the total computational power used to mine and process transactions on proof-of-work blockchains. Hashrate is closely tracked by markets as an indicator of mining efficiency and profitability.

Mining revenues have similarly surged, climbing from $50,000 a day last year to $56,000 in June and $57,000 in July. US-listed companies account for 26–27% of all Bitcoin mined in the past year, with production rising from around 3,400 to over 3,600 Bitcoins in July alone, highlighting the growing role of American miners in the global crypto ecosystem.

Overall, the cryptocurrency sector is showing strong performance across market cap, institutional adoption, mining, and emerging digital asset markets, signaling continued growth and renewed investor interest.