BlockBeats News: On January 23, according to CoinDesk, despite a strong start to the year, Ethereum and the broader cryptocurrency market experienced a pullback this week. However, Geoff Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered Bank, still believes there are reasons to remain bullish. On Friday morning in the U.S., ETH traded at around $2,912, with a weekly decline of approximately 12%, and a year-to-date decline of about 1.7%. As the largest institutional holder of enterprise-grade Ethereum, Tom Lee's BitMine (BMNR) saw its stock price fall nearly 9% this week, with a year-to-date decline expanding to about 10%.
Kendrick pointed out that Ethereum network activity has sharply increased over the past few weeks, with the number of transactions reaching a historical high. This surge is largely attributed to the capacity boost brought by the December Fusaka upgrade. He noted that this spike in usage marks a departure from previous cycles, where upgrades failed to drive long-term network growth. Unlike prior upgrades, Fusaka appears to be alleviating previous bottlenecks, enabling more users and developers to complete transactions smoothly. This increase in capacity is making the current wave of growth fundamentally different from previous ones.
Kendrick pointed out that BitMine shows no signs of slowing down its pace of purchasing Ethereum. Tom Lee outlined the company's plans for more acquisitions in the future during last week's annual shareholders' meeting. The macroeconomic environment is also playing a positive role. The removal of tariff risks related to Greenland, the rebound in Japanese bond markets after panic selling earlier this week, and the rising possibility that BlackRock's head of fixed income, Rick Rieder, could become the next Federal Reserve Chair are all positive for risk assets. These factors should also benefit cryptocurrencies, and going long on ETH and BMNR over the weekend appears to offer a favorable risk/reward ratio.