As the market awaits the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Ethereum (ETH) is attempting to hold the $4,000 area as support. Despite the volatility, some analysts have predicted that the King of Altcoins may soon start its long-awaited price discovery rally, while whales pour millions into the cryptocurrency.

Ethereum Price Set For $8,000

On Wednesday, Ethereum fell below the $4,000 level once again, falling to a two-day low of $3,926. After a massive Q3 rally, the King of Altcoin has struggled to hold the crucial psychological barrier as support and has been unable to reclaim the $4,200 resistance for most of October.

Earlier this week, the cryptocurrency retested the key resistance level after surging 7% over the weekend, but retraced on Tuesday alongside the rest of the market. Amid this performance, some analysts suggested that ETH will likely experience more volatility, fueled by the Federal Reserve (Fed)’s interest rate cut announcement.

Daan Crypto Trades noted that ETH’s big test is around its previous cycle highs near the $4,100 level. To the trader, “this is the level to break and hold if the bulls want to get back to the highs in due time.” On the contrary, a new rejection from this area could send the price to retest $3,800 and turn the level into a major resistance in the larger timeframes.

Nonetheless, Crypto Yhodda stated that Ethereum is “getting ready for the last euphoric run,” as its performance resembles its 2021 price action, when the altcoin recorded a massive price discovery rally after breaking out of its four-year consolidation.

Similarly, analyst Crypto Jelle asserted that shakeouts at key support levels are expected, adding that the cryptocurrency’s rally “still looks very promising.” Jelle highlighted an 18-month bullish megaphone formation on Ethereum’s chart, which it broke out of during the Q3 rally.

The analyst emphasized that ETH is still holding the previous highs and the breakout level as support, suggesting that a “hated rally” to the $8,000 target could happen soon.

Whales Bet Big On ETH

Online reports highlighted that large-scale investors have been on a buying spree despite the altcoin’s pullback. As reported by NewsBTC, Santiment data showed that whales added 218,470 ETH in the past week, signaling that major investors are gradually re-entering the market.

Meanwhile, on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain revealed that whales continued to buy ETH over the past 24 hours. Notably, two newly created addresses received a total of 33,948 ETH, worth $135 million, from digital asset prime brokerage FalconX on Wednesday morning.

According to Lookonchain, the two addresses likely belong to BitMine, the largest Ethereum-based treasury company, which recently unveiled another 27,316 ETH purchase, worth $113 million.

In a Monday X post, BitMine provided its latest holdings update, which now surpasses the $14.2 billion mark. As of October 27, the company holds 3,313,069 ETH, 192 BTC, an $88 million stake in Eightco Holdings for its “Moonshot” initiative, and unencumbered cash of $305 million.

A month ago, BitMine revealed it had reached the 2% milestone of its goal to own 5% of Ethereum’s total supply. With the recent purchases, the company has achieved 55% of its goal, currently holding 2.75% of ETH’s supply.

As of this writing, ETH is trading at $3,990, a 3.5% drop in the daily timeframe.

Following the recent launch of multiple crypto ETFs, Bitwise Asset Manager’s CIO has forecasted a bright future for the firm’s Solana Staking Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF), as investors show strong initial interest in the investment product.

Bitwise Solana Staking ETF Sees Strong Start

On Tuesday, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan predicted that the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) could attract significant institutional interest and become one of the leading investment products based on digital assets.

Hougan argued that Solana is “one of the most exciting crypto investment opportunities that exists today,” as it records “the most revenue of any blockchain.” He explained that institutional investors “love” both ETFs and revenue, which suggests that these investors will “love Solana ETFs.”

Bitwise’s CIO previously pointed out that there must be fundamental reasons for investors’ interest in investment vehicles such as ETFs and Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs), signaling that Solana has them. Therefore, he has “a feeling the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF, BSOL, is gonna be huge.”

Ahead of the launch, ETF Expert Eric Balchunas predicted that the first day volume for Bitwise’s Solana ETF could surpass the $50 million mark. Notably, the firm’s spot Bitcoin ETF (BITB) and spot Ethereum ETH (ETHW) recorded $237.9 million and $204 million on their first day, respectively.

Hougan has highlighted that Solana’s market capitalization is 1/20th the size of BTC and less than 1/4th the size of ETH. Based on this, the volume for an SOL ETF is expected to be smaller than that of ETFs based on the two leading crypto assets.

According to data shared by Balchunas, BSOL recorded an impressive volume of $10 million in the first 30 minutes of trading, hinting at initial demand. This amount surged to approximately $33 million by the half-day mark and hit $56 million by the end of its first trading day.

According to the analyst, BSOL had a strong start, noting that its “$56m is the MOST of any launch this year.. More than XRPR, SSK, Ives and BMNU.”

Crypto ETFs Launch Amid Government Shutdown

BSOL was among the crypto ETFs launched on October 28 despite the US government shutdown. As reported by NewsBTC, Bitwise, for its Solana Staking ETF, and Canary Capital, for its spot Litecoin (LTC) and Hedera (HBAR) ETFs, filed 8-A forms on Monday to launch the investment products this week despite the government shutdown.

Notably, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was set to approve over a dozen altcoin ETFs between October and November after delaying the decision deadline and releasing new generic listing standards for the products.

However, investors expected that the long-awaited green light would be delayed until the end of the government shutdown. Journalist Eleanor Terret explained that the launch was possible because an open government isn’t required and the 8-A filings are “just as important” as the S-1 forms, as they formally register ETF shares under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

As a result, after the NYSE certified all the filings for the ETFs, they could start trading on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Grayscale’s Solana Trust (GSOL) will convert into an ETF on Wednesday.