This $6b crypto fund quietly accumulated 2% of all Ethereum in circulation

Ethereum has been one of the best-performing crypto-assets of the year, lifting off after a brutal bear market throughout 2018 and 2019 that brought it down by over 90 percent from its all-time high.

A key catalyst behind Ethereum's recovery is institutions acquiring vast amounts of the cryptocurrency, which comes as the decentralized finance space has begun to gain much traction.

Grayscale Investments now holds 2% of all BTC and 2% of all ETH. According to Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group, Grayscale Investment's Ethereum Trust has quietly accumulated two percent of all ETH in circulation as of just recently.

CryptoSlate data suggests that two percent of all ETH in circulation is approximately 2.25 million coins, currently valued at over $800 million.

Grayscale isn't the only institution acquiring exposure to Ethereum.

"My read on #DeFi after speaking with instl investors, fund mgrs, OTC desks, and FOs over the last few wks: The herd is coming. They're excited about DeFi but new to it, so they're buying $ETH first."

Noon does think that investors with exposure to Ethereum but an interest in DeFi will eventually "Move up the risk spectrum" to tokens once they are more comfortable with industry concepts and protocols.

Spencer Noon recently shared three crucial factors showing that Ethereum is stronger than ever before from an on-chain and fundamental standpoint.

"L1 Health - long term fundamental indicators show Ethereum has arguably never been healthier. 1. ETH now dwarfs BTC in daily total USD fees paid 2. 115m contract calls in Sept, up from 57m in June 3. Daily Active Addr consistently over 400k.".

CFTC Chair Heath Tarbert also recently stated that he has been genuinely "Impressed" by Ethereum, "Period." He added that if Bitcoin is like email, then Ethereum can be see as something similar to the Internet.