Ether (ETH) has fallen more than 5.6% to around $2,275 after facing rejection at the $2,400 resistance level, with several indicators now pointing to a potential decline below the $2,000 mark.
Key takeaways:
- Weak network activity points to slowing usage and softer onchain demand for Ether.
- Coinbase Premium has stayed in negative territory while spot Ethereum ETF outflows resumed, signaling persistent selling pressure from US investors.
- Ether’s developing falling wedge formation projects a potential downside target near $1,830.
Ether’s total value locked falls to 12-month lows
Ethereum’s onchain fundamentals continue to weaken, with Nansen data showing weekly average transaction volume declining 10% to 4.79 million transactions. Over the same period, the number of active addresses dropped 8% to roughly 2.5 million.
Network fees also fell by around 27%, contributing to a 47% decline in Ethereum’s onchain revenue over the past seven days.
Additional data from DefiLlama shows weekly decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume fell to $1.64 billion on May 8, marking a 46% decline over the past three weeks.
The drop in transaction activity, shrinking number of active addresses and weakening DEX volumes point to declining usage across the Ethereum ecosystem. As a result, the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum-based DeFi protocols has fallen to roughly $124.7 billion, its lowest level since May 2025.
The slowdown in network activity points to weakening user conviction, undermining Ether’s ability to maintain bullish price momentum.
Ether unstaking queue surges 72,000%
Ethereum’s unstaking queue spiked by roughly 72,000% over a two-week period, reaching 530,985 ETH on May 2.
As of Friday, more than 202,000 ETH remained queued for withdrawal, with users facing an estimated wait time of about three days.
The sharp increase follows a wave of major DeFi exploits that have fueled investor caution. In April 2026 alone, decentralized finance platforms recorded a record $625 million in losses across 30 separate attacks. That figure included a $292 million loss tied to the KelpDAO bridge hack, which contributed to more than $15 billion in deposits being withdrawn from the Aave protocol.
The incidents appear to have pushed investors toward unstaking ETH in order to restore liquidity exposure, signaling a broader retreat from perceived market risk.
Crypto analyst Pete highlighted the shift in a recent X post, noting that Ethereum’s exit queue had surged from roughly 700 ETH to nearly 500,000 ETH within just two weeks.
“DeFi yield on Ethereum is getting crushed by hacks, exploits and increasingly nasty attack surfaces.”
Despite the sharp increase in unstaking activity, Ethereum continues to see strong long-term staking demand. Around 3.6 million ETH remains queued for staking entry — roughly seven times larger than the exit queue — pushing the total amount of staked ETH to 38.6 million, or about 31.72% of the circulating supply, even as new validators face wait times of up to 45 days.
Ether’s Coinbase Premium stays negative
Ethereum’s Coinbase Premium Index, which measures the price gap between ETH trading on Coinbase and Binance, has remained in negative territory since April 27.
A sustained negative premium suggests that selling pressure is being driven primarily by US-based investors. As long as ETH continues trading at a discount on Coinbase relative to global exchanges, bearish momentum could continue to build.
Additionally, US-based spot Ethereum ETFs snapped a four-day inflow streak with $103 million in net inflows on Thursday, the largest withdrawal since mid-March.
The bearish outlook has been reinforced by more than $81.6 million in outflows from global Ethereum investment products last week, signaling continued institutional selling pressure and adding to Ether’s broader market headwinds.
At the same time, ETH taker buy volume on Binance recently fell to nearly negative $25 million, a sign of increasingly aggressive market sell orders, according to a Friday Quicktake report from CryptoQuant analyst BorisD.
“This structure raises the risk of short-term volatility and a support retest for ETH price action.”
Ether’s rising wedge breakdown gains momentum
The daily ETH/USD chart suggests a rising wedge breakdown is underway after Ether lost support at the pattern’s lower trendline near $2,300.
Bulls are now attempting to defend the $2,150–$2,200 zone, where the 100-day simple moving average (SMA) and the 50-week SMA are currently positioned.
Another major support area sits at the psychologically important $2,000 level. A decisive break below that threshold could accelerate downside momentum and open the door for a decline toward the wedge’s projected target near $1,830 — roughly 20% below current price levels.
As previously reported, Ether could decline toward the $1,750–$1,850 range if bulls fail to reclaim the $2,300 support level in the near term.
