Ether (ETH) fell more than 5.6% to $2,275 after being rejected by the $2,400 resistance. Currently, multiple data points suggest that ETH/USD could fall below $2,000.
Key takeaways:
- Low network activity signals a decline in usage and reduced onchain demand for ETH.
- Coinbase Premium remains negative as outflows from Ethereum cash ETFs have returned, reflecting mighty US-led selling pressure.
- Ether’s falling wedge pattern reaches $1,830.
Ether’s total locked value hits 12-month lows
The fundamentals of the Ethereum network are weakening, with the average weekly number of transactions falling 10% to 4.79 million, according to Nansen data. During the same period, the number of dynamic addresses decreased by 8% to 2.5 million.
Related: Three reasons why ether price increases fail near 2.4 thousand dollars
Network fees also dropped by around 27%, leading to a 47% drop in onchain revenue over the last seven days.
Blockchain comparison: daily transactions, dynamic addresses and network fees. source: Nansen
Additional data from DefiLlama can be seen that weekly DEX volume dropped to $1.64 billion on May 8, down 46% over the past three weeks.
Low transaction volume, dwindling dynamic addresses, and dwindling DEX volumes reflect reduced ecosystem utilization. As a result, the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum’s DeFi protocols dropped to $124.7 billion, a level last seen in May 2025.
Total value locked in Ethereum. source: DefiLlama
This subdued network activity signals impoverished user confidence, which affects Ether’s ability to sustain price growth.
Ether output queue jumps by 72,000%
Ethereum’s non-staking queue increased by approximately 72,000% in two weeks to 530,985 ETH on May 2.
As of Friday, there was over 202,000 ETH in the redemption queue, with a waiting time of approximately three days.
The number of ethers waiting in the queue to exit. Source: Validator Queue
The surge comes after a series of significant DeFi hacks, reflecting investor caution. In April 2026, DeFi platforms saw record highs $625 million in monthly losses after 30 separate attacks, including: Loss of $292 million due to KelpDAO bridge hackwhich leads to the end $15 billion worth of deposits were withdrawn from the Aave platform.
These incidents prompted investors to dump ETH to regain liquidity, signaling a flight from perceived risk.
“The exit queue increased from ~700 ETH to ~500k ETH in 2 weeks” – analyst Pete he said in the last post on X, adding:
“DeFi performance on Ethereum is being crushed by hacks, exploits and increasingly nasty attack surfaces.”
Despite the surge in outflow pressure, 3.6 million ETH remains in the queue to enter staking (7x exit volume), bringing the total value of staked ETH to 38.6 million (31.72% of supply) despite a 45-day wait time.
Coinbase Premium’s Ether remains negative
The Ethereum Coinbase Premium Index, which tracks the price difference between ETH on Coinbase and Binance, has remained negative since April 27.
The negative premium confirms that sales pressure is largely coming from US entities. As long as U.S. investors sell at a discount compared to the global market, the rate of decline is likely to accelerate.
Coinbase Ethereum Premium Index. Source: CryptoQuant
Additionally, US Ethereum spot ETFs snapped a four-day streak of inflows with net outflows of $103 million on Thursday, the largest withdrawal since mid-March.
Ethereum Spot ETF Flow Chart. Source: SoSoValue
Combined with over Outflows amounted to USD 81.6 million from global Ethereum investment products last week, this indicates institutional selling, further hampering Ether.
Meanwhile, purchase volumes from ETH collectors have dropped to just -$25 million on Binance in recent days, indicating a “surge in the number of sell orders in an aggressive market,” CryptoQuant analyst BorisD he said in Friday’s Quicktake note, adding:
“This structure increases the risk of near-term volatility and a retest of support for ETH price action.”
ETH purchase volume on Binance. Source: CryptoQuant
The breakdown of the ether rising wedge is ongoing
The daily chart shows the ETH/USD pair confirming a rising wedge formation after the price lost support at the lower trendline at $2,300.
Bulls are now struggling to keep the price above $2,150-$2,200, where the 100-day and 50-week plain moving average (SMA) are located, respectively.
The other key line of defense is the psychological level of $2,000, which if breached would open a path for Ether to fall towards the measured wedge target of $1,830, approximately 20% below the current price.
ETH/USD daily price chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
As Cointelegraph reportedETH price could drop to $1,750-$1,850 if the $2,300 support is not regained in the miniature term.
