Despite a 28 percent loss in value this year, Ethereum continues to lead in on-chain transaction volume and decentralized finance. The network currently has approximately $43 billion worth of DeFi liquidity and over $165 billion in stablecoins. Additionally, approximately 55 percent of tokenized assets tracked on public blockchains are traded on Ethereum.
DeFi and tokenization leadership
Data published by Token Terminal showed that the total market value of tokenized exchange-traded funds (ETFs) exceeded $400 million, where Ethereum stands out significantly with a share of 76.9 percent.
Evaluating the developments, crypto analyst Tanaka emphasized Ethereum’s dominance among different blockchains.
Ethereum is still by far the leader in onchain activities, and its weight in the DeFi ecosystem and tokenized assets is particularly notable.
Staking activities and validator density
Although the Ethereum price has fallen this year, there is an increase in staking demand. The number of ETH staked in the network reached 39.1 million, accounting for approximately 32 percent of the total supply. The number of active validators is over 896 thousand.
3.49 million ETH is waiting in the Validator login queue. While the waiting period exceeds 60 days, there appears to be only 7,424 ETH on the exit side. This shows that despite the low prices, large amounts of ETH are going to staking.
Mini dictionary: Validators are participants on the Ethereum network who verify transactions, produce blocks and ensure the security of the network. Validators undertake this task by locking a certain amount of ETH.
Accumulating ETH and long-term investors
According to data shared by CryptoQuant, the amount of ETH directed to collection addresses increased to 248,400 on May 20. This was the highest single-day increase since the beginning of the year. The wallets in question are generally associated with long-term investors and their sales movements are limited.
On the technical analysis side, according to the trader nicknamed Crypto Bullet, Ether’s weekly charts still show a multi-year accumulation range; This area is between 1,000 and 5,000 dollars. The analyst thinks that buyers have been slowly building their positions in recent years, and the main trend has been taking shape in this process.
Evaluating that the price may fall back to the $ 1,000–1,300 range in the long-term range, Crypto Bullet announced that this may be the last ‘surrender’ zone before moving on to the next cycle. For the years 2027-2029, targets of 7,700 to 14,000 dollars were highlighted.
Tracking patterns and market expectations
Onchain analyst Rei analyzed Ether’s price action based on the multiple of the two-year simple moving average (SMA) pattern. According to this pattern, the price recently fell below its two-year average.
Market players often view this ‘x1 band’ as the fair value zone. On the other hand, upper bands such as x1.42 and x2.65 occur when the price rises above the average in bull markets. Currently, price action is trending close to the 2Y SMA/2 band, which is the lower bound shown in purple on the chart.
