Cointelegraph expects ETH to recover to $3,300 in the near future. And #ETH currently looks like a market that is fearful but is starting to use the network again.
Against the backdrop of the general weakness in the crypto market, #ETH has dropped by -15.9% over the week, resulting in about $910 million in liquidations of bullish positions - hence the discussions about the 'break of support at $2,800' are warranted.
But if we look at the usage metrics, the picture is not so bearish: #Ethereum sees both fees and activity rising simultaneously, while the average fee remains low (around $0.20 even during increased demand). This is an important connection: demand is returning, but the network is not "squeezing" users with prices, which means rebounds can get "fuel" not only from "hope" but from real turnover.
According to the charts: in the ranking of weekly fees (according to sources from #Nansen), #Ethereum has added about +19% over the week, while competitors like #Tron and #Solana appear weaker in terms of fees relative to their recent dynamics.
At the same time, DEX activity is reviving (this is already from the sources of #DefiLlama): weekly DEX volumes on Ethereum have grown to about $13 billion (compared to around $8.15 billion four weeks earlier), and the entire "eco-perimeter" of Ethereum (L1+L2) has ramped up to about $26.8 billion - this is a signal that interest and turnover are returning specifically to the ecosystem, not to a separate "seasonal" narrative. In derivatives (Laevitas/Deribit), panic is also no longer increasing: the put-to-call ratio by volume after a spike to about 2x (a maximum in over 4 months) quickly returned to neutral levels, and this is characteristic: the peak hedge came already after the drop below $2,800, meaning "fear" was lagging behind the movement rather than leading it.
The conclusion on the ETH market - for Ethereum to actually return to the range of $3,200-$3,300, three things need to continue:
- stable DEX volumes,
- rising fees as a reflection of demand,
- absence of a new skew in options (so that the market does not buy insurance "just in case" as a base scenario).
As long as these metrics hold, everything is fine. And the current return of the price above $3,000, which occurred already after the publication of the article by #Cointelegraph, is in line with expectations.
