Ethereum Extends Rally to $4,277, But Analysts Warn of Profit-Taking Risks

Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow, CEO of Jan3, cautioned that the rally may be short-lived. He argued that long-term Ether holders, particularly early ICO insiders, are rotating capital from Bitcoin into ETH to fuel price gains on the back of bullish narratives, such as the rise of Ethereum-based treasury companies. According to Mow, these investors will ultimately sell near the peak, creating “new generational bagholders” before moving profits back into Bitcoin.

Let me explain what’s happening with ETHBTC.

Most ETH holders have a lot of BTC (ICO/insiders) and they are rotating that BTC into ETH to pump it on new narratives (Ethereum Treasury co’s).

Once they’ve gotten it high enough, they’ll dump their ETH, creating new generational…

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) August 10, 2025

“No one wants ETH in the long run,”

Mow claimed, adding that the token could face stiff resistance near its previous all-time high due to what he calls the “Bagholder’s Dilemma”  the tendency for rising prices to increase selling pressure.

Ethereum’s upswing has been supported by institutional inflows and corporate treasuries adding ETH to reserves. However, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has urged caution, warning that excessive leverage in ETH treasuries could trigger systemic risks.

“If you woke me up three years from now and told me that treasuries led to the downfall of ETH… my guess would be that somehow they turned it into an overleveraged game,”

he said.

Some market participants remain bullish. One prominent X user predicted ETH could breach $5,000 within six weeks, citing five key drivers: declining Bitcoin dominance, potential $10 billion inflows from spot ETH ETFs, Ethereum stablecoin settlements surpassing Visa’s payment volumes, expanding corporate layer-2 adoption driving “a new on-chain GDP,” and the migration of real-world assets like U.S. Treasuries onto Ethereum.

Still, the outlook is mixed. While optimism over Ethereum’s structural growth is strong, it is tempered by fears of leveraged speculation and looming profit-taking pressure. Standard Chartered’s head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick, noted that institutional investors are increasingly favouring Ethereum treasury companies over U.S. spot ETH ETFs, further shaping the market narrative.