Although ETH has tested $3.2K but US Macro and other obstacles remain

Takeaways from the conference:

• Ether is trading at around $3,200 due to the weaker usage of its network and uncertainty in US economy.

• The most popular Ethereum network is Layer-2, however cheaper blockchains are reducing the chances that Ether will regain $4,000 anytime soon.

EtherETHThe price of ETH has failed repeatedly to maintain levels above $3300 in the last 60 days. This failure leads traders to wonder if a bullish trend is possible by 2026. Investors worry about the possibility of Ethereum reclaiming $4,000 despite the network implementing important upgrades.

Since November, Ether has tracked closely the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization. In this way, it appears that the waning interest in decentralized applications (DApps), and not Ethereum-specific issues, is driving the low level of optimism. Whether traders’ worries are based on broader economic risk or not, the price of ETH in short-term seems to be limited.

Ether reaches broader crypto-market despite weaker usage

Traders have less interest in DApps regardless of factors influencing bullish investors. This is reflected in the declining activity on decentralized exchanges (DEX). According to DefiLlama the aggregate DEX volume over the last two weeks was $150.4 billion. This is down by 55% from January 2025’s $340 billion record high.

The Ethereum DEX 7-day volume is now hovering around $9 billion, after reaching a peak of $27.8 in October 2025. Ethereum’s network fees dropped by 87%, to $2.6m from $21.3m three months ago. To be sure, Ethereum’s ecosystem still dominates, with a roughly 50% share in DEX activity when you combine data from Base Arbitrum Polygon or other layer-2 solutions.

The fact that Ethereum is leading in terms of total value locked (TVL), is a strong indication. institutional investor Even though competitors such as Tron and BNB Chain are generating higher network fees, they still have the advantage. Some market participants claim that Ethereum’s dominance of smart contract deposits has not been fully monetized. However, the outcome was largely intended and is due to its scaling strategy built on rollups.

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Solana’s number of transactions exceeds that of the top ten competitors. This shows the importance of the Solana network, which relies on a highly-centralized structure and intensive validation procedures. Nansen’s data indicates that Ethereum recorded 54.4 million transaction over a period of 30 days, while Base (its layer-2 network) registered more than 600 millions.

The recent drop in Ether prices below $3,200 is a challenge for businesses that have raised equity or debt to accumulate ETH reserves. Bitmine Immersion, for example (BMNRUS), currently holds $13.2 billion worth of EtherAccording to CoinGecko, the shares of this company trade at a 9 percent discount from their holdings.

Uncertainty remains about what could trigger a shift in momentum to ETH’s advantage, particularly as other networks offer comparable DApps, functionality, and features for the average user, with less friction, due to their base-layer scalability. Ether’s journey back to $4000 and beyond is heavily dependent on renewed demand and cryptocurrency risk appetite in an uncertain US economy.