TVL

Ethereum price rallies toward key resistance but is ETH’s strength sustainable?

Ethereum’s price rally toward $2,100 is driven by new developments in the layer-2 space and investors’ anticipation of a spot BTC ETF.

Ether (ETH) is trading higher on Dec.

*Ether 12-hour price index, USD. Source: TradingView*

However, the current positive momentum is supported by several factors, including applications for spot ETFs and the expansion of Ethereum’s ecosystem, driven by layer-2 solutions.

ETH benefits from ETF expectations and negative news related to competing blockchains

A pivotal development occurred on Nov. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiating the review process for Fidelity’s spot Ether ETF proposal, filed on Nov.

Despite analysts predicting the SEC might delay its decision to early 2024, interim deadlines for applications by VanEck and ARK 21Shares on Dec.

The Ethereum network’s growth, especially in transaction activity and layer-2 development, is noteworthy.

This growth is reflected in Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL), which recently hit a two-month high of 13 million ETH, spurred by a 13% weekly gain in Spark and a 60% increase in Blast user deposits.

*Ethereum network top DApps by TVL. Source: DefiLlama*

In contrast, Tron, another leading blockchain in TVL terms, witnessed a 12% decline over the past ten days. Recent high-profile hacks linked to Tron’s founder Justin Sun have also swayed investor confidence toward Ethereum.

DAO treasuries top $25 billion for the first time: DeepDAO

Assets held in DAO treasuries have more than doubled since the beginning of 2023, according to DeepDAO.

Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) treasuries are rapidly growing, having just surpassed a major milestone, according to DeepDAO.

According to figures from the DAO data platform, on March 31, total assets for all decentralized autonomous organizations reached a record $25.1 billion.

The treasury is the total sum of assets the DAO may use at its own discretion. It excludes DAO-managed but unowned assets such as staking accounts and reward fees.

Around $22 billion of that total is liquid with around $3.5 billion set aside for vesting, according to DeepDAO.

Remarkably, assets in DAO treasuries have more than doubled since the beginning of 2023, which is no mean feat during a bear market.

Eyal Eithcowich, founder of DeepDAO told Cointelegraph, “The first time we aggregated DAO treasuries on DeepDAO the total was $23M, so we’re seeing growth at the scale of a 1000X.”

*Total DAO treasury assets. Source: DeepDAO*

Furthermore, the figure of $25.1 billion represents around 40% of the total value locked for all of DeFi, as reported by DeFiLlama. This is currently $61.7 billion, having increased by 39% since the beginning of the year.

DeepDAO is a discovery and analytics engine for the DAO ecosystem that lists and analyzes financial and governance data for the fast-growing sector. DeepDAO reports that there are 12,108 DAOs, 2,353 of which are analyzed by the platform.

Eithcowich said that the big movers are layer 2 DAOs, with infrastructure now the leading category overtaking DeFi.

DeepDAO’s Daniel Bar said that, “For a long while only Uniswap and BitDAO were DAOs that held treasuries if more than $2 billion, but, this past week alone three gianst were added to the DeepDAO organizations ranking board: Arbitrum (over $4B) Optimism (over $5B) and Polygon (over $1B). This marked a point where total DAO treasuries aggregated by DeepDAO crossed $25B”

total value across all DAO treasuries surpassed $25B for first time ever pic.twitter.com/VcymWJOkOy

— Jacquelyn Melinek (@jacqmelinek) March 30, 2023

The Optimism Collective is the leader in terms of treasury funds, with $5.5 billion giving it a market share of 22%. Optimism is the second most popular Ethereum layer-2 solutions provider after Arbitrum One, according to L2beat.

However, Arbitrum has a slightly lower DAO treasury of $4.4 billion giving it a share of 17.5%.

The remaining DAOs comprising the top five are BitDAO, Uniswap and Polygon, with treasuries of $2.6 billion, $2.5 billion, and $1.5 billion respectively.

DeepDAO also reports that the most active DAO over the past week has been PancakeSwap with 66 decisions. The total number of decisions made for all DAOs analyzed over the past month was 3,300, a fall from February’s 3,700 decisions.

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Lido overtakes MakerDAO and now has the highest TVL in DeFi

A Nansen in December noted that Ether staking solutions had been in high demand since Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake.

Liquid staking protocol Lido Finance appears to have benefited most from the Ethereum merge in September, with its total value locked (TVL) now sitting at the top position among other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

According to data from DefiLlama, Lido’s liquid staking protocol now commands $5.9 billion in TVL, compared to MakerDAO’s $5.89 billion and AAVE’s $3.7 billion.

Lido now has the highest TVL of any DeFi protocol. pic.twitter.com/2xsM3lVGVl

— Patrick | Dynamo DeFi (@Dynamo_Patrick) January 1, 2023

According to Lido Finance’s website, as of Jan. 2, had $5.8 billion Ether (ETH) staked. Meanwhile, there was around $23.2 million staked in Solana (SOL), $43.9 million in Polygon (MATIC), $11 million in Polkadot (DOT) and $2.2 million in Kusama (KSM).

Lido’s model allows users access to liquid Ether staking without committing to the traditional 32 ETH minimum.

Blockchain data analytics from Nansen in December noted that staking solutions such as these had been in high demand since Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake (PoS).

It’s report highlighted the impact of the Merge in introducing staked ETH as an out-and-out cryptocurrency-native yield-bearing instrument that has quickly outstripped other collateralized yield-bearing services.

Lido appears to have benefitted from this, as its fee revenue has been directly proportional to Ethereum PoS earnings since Lido sends received Ether to the staking protocol.

In Nov. 2022 that Lido said it has been collecting $1 million in fees every day since Oct. 2022.

Meanwhile, the governing body of the Maker protocol MakerDAO saw its revenue decline to just over $4 million in Q3, a 86% plunge from the previous quarter, according to a Messari statement in Sept. 2022, citing few liquidations and weak loan demand as the reasons for the decline.

In that same month, Lido held the most amount of staked ETH among DeFi, with 31% according to Nansen in September, which is a significant amount compared to major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, holding 15% and 8.5%, respectively.

3 key Solana metrics explain exactly why SOL price is down

SOL price is down 29% since August, and three key metrics suggest bulls are in no rush to return.

The past eighty days have been moderately bearish for cryptocurrencies as the altcoin market capitalization declined by 16%. The downside movement can be partially explained by the United States Federal Reserve’s quantitative tightening, rising interest rates and the halting of asset purchases. Although they are aimed at curbing inflationary pressure, the policy also increases borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.

The downfall of Solana’s SOL (SOL) token has been even more brutal, with the altcoin facing a 29% correction since August. The smart contract network focuses on low fees and speed, but the frequent outages highlight a centralization issue.

*Solana/USD price (blue) vs. altcoin capitalization (orange). Source: TradingView*

The latest setback occurred on Sept. 30 after a misconfigured validator halted blockchain transactions. A duplicate node instance caused the network to fork, as the remaining nodes could not agree on the correct chain version.

Recently, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko placed his bets on Firedancer, a scaling solution developed by Jump Crypto in partnership with the Solana Foundation. Dubbed the long-term fix to the network outage problem, the mechanism should be ready for testing in the coming months.

On Oct. 11, Solana-based decentralized finance exchange Mango Markets was hit with an exploit of over $115 million. The attacker successfully manipulated the value of MNGO native token collateral, taking out “massive loans” from Mango’s treasury.

Solana’s TVL and the number of active addresses dropped

Solana’s primary decentralized application metric started to display weakness earlier in November. The network’s total value locked (TVL), which measures the amount deposited in its smart contracts, broke to its lowest level since September 2021 at 30.4 million SOL.

*Solana network total value locked, SOL. Source: DefiLlama*

There are other factors that influence Solana’s decrease in value and TVL. To confirm whether DApp use has effectively decreased, investors should also analyze the number of active addresses within the ecosystem.

*Solana DApps 30-day on-chain data. Source: DappRadar*

Oct. 19 data from DappRadar shows that the number of Solana network addresses interacting with decentralized applications declined in 13 of the top 20 DApps. The reduced interest was also reflected in SOL’s futures markets.

Fixed-month contracts usually trade at a slight premium to spot markets because investors demand more money to withhold the settlement. Whenever this indicator fades or turns negative, this is an alarming, bearish red flag signaling a situation known as backwardation.

*Solana 3-month futures annualized basis. Source:* *Laevitas*

The above chart shows how Solana futures have been trading at a 7% discount versus the current spot price. This data is concerning since it signals a lack of interest from leverage buyers.

SOL will continue to underperform until it flips these metrics

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for Solana’s price drop, but it is clear that centralization issues, a decrease in the network’s DApp use and fading interest from derivatives traders certainly played a role.

Should the sentiment flip, there should be an inflow of deposits, increasing Solana’s TVL and the number of active addresses. Consequently, the above data suggest that Solana holders should not expect a price bounce anytime soon because the network health metrics remain under pressure.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Total value locked in DeFi dropped by 66%, but multiple metrics reflect steady growth

Decentralized finance TVL is down by 66%, but growth in DEX aggregators, active addresses and steady fund raises show “DeFi winter” is not upon us.

The aggregate total value locked (TVL) in the crypto market measures the amount of funds deposited in smart contracts and this figure declined from $160 billion in mid-April to the current $70 billion, which is the lowest level since March 2021. While this 66% contraction is worrying, a great deal of data suggests that the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is resilient.

The issue with using TVL as a broad metric is the lack of detail that is not shown. For example, the number of DeFi transactions, growth of layer-2 scaling solutions and venture capital inflows in the ecosystem are not reflected in the metric.

In DappRadar’s July 29 Crypto adoption report, data shows that the DeFi 2Q transaction count closed down by 15% versus the previous quarter. This figure is far less concerning than the devastating TVL decline and is corroborated by a 12% drop in the number of unique active wallets in the same period.

Layer-2 is the path for sustainable DeFi growth

Iakov Levin, CEO and founder of Midas Investments told Cointelegraph that:

“I am firmly convinced that the current bear market is not the ‘end’ of the DeFi industry. For instance, there is a growing competition amongst decentralized exchanges on layer-2 Ethereum scaling platform Optimism, as Velodrome reached more than $130 million in TVL.”

Optimism is an Ethereum scalability solution using layer-2 to bundle transaction verifications off-chain, reducing the processing and transaction cost for decentralized applications on the network.

*Optimism network TVL, USD million. Source: Defi Llama*

Venture capital inflows further support the resilience of DeFi thesis. On July 12, the crypto-centric Multicoin Capital launched a $430 million fund. The investment managing firm was founded in 2017 and aims to focus on developing Web3 infrastructure, DeFi applications and autonomous business models.

On July 28, Variant announced a successful $450 million capital increase to fund, among others, “financial empowerment through DeFi.” The strategy includes the financialization and productivity of NFTs, stablecoins, lending optimizers, DEX aggregators and “products that bridge the legacy financial system with DeFi.”

These significant-size fund raises lead Levin to believe that scaling solutions will take decentralized finance applications to the next level in a way that was not possible during the so-called “DeFi Summer 2.0” in the 3Q of 2021. The average Ethereum network transaction fee during that period stood above $25, making it almost impossible for the applications to gain traction. Midas Investments CEO Levin said:

“Ultimately, I see layer-2 as a potential factor for reviving the sector’s growth. This will be driven by the scalability rise due to the optimistic and zk-Rollups solutions implementation. By providing users with cheaper transaction fees and near-instant semi-confirmations, layer-2 will dramatically improve user experience and will soon have the capacity to onboard a new wave of users.”

Metamask Swap and 1inch Network stand out

The number of active addresses using DeFi applications has held reasonably stable over the past 30 days, according to data from DappRadar.

*Leading DeFi applications by 30-day active addresses. Source: DappRadar*

Data shows an average 2% drop in active addresses, but four out of the top fiv applications presented growth. In addition, DEX aggregators 1inch Network and MetaMask posted considerable user gains, thus invalidating concerns of a “DeFi winter.”

In a nutshell, the decentralized finance industry continues to grow in the number of active addresses, venture capital investments and innovative solutions offering cheaper and faster processing capabilities compared to the last peak in late 2021.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

BNB rallies 39% despite smart contract deposits dropping 28% — Should investors be worried?

BNB Chain’s total value locked dropped more significantly than its competitors, but the network’s decentralized applications are not fading out.

Cryptocurrencies’ total market capitalization bounced from $860 billion on June 30 to the current $1.03 trillion, a 20.6% relief in five weeks. Ether (ETH) might have been the absolute leader among the largest smart contract chains, but BNB managed to gain 39% over that period.

*BNB (blue) vs. Ether (orange), AVAX (cyan), SOL (yellow). Source: TradingView*

BNB token’s year-to-date performance remains negative by 43%, but the current $49.5 billion market capitalization ranks it the third largest, excluding stablecoins. Furthermore, the leading decentralized application (DApp) is PancakeSwap — 843,630 active addresses in the past seven days — which runs on BNB Chain.

The token serves primarily as a utility asset within the Binance exchange ecosystem, enabling traders to earn discounts or participate in token offers. So, technically, the BNB token does not give ownership rights or dividends to any Binance-owned company or service.

However, according to Bloomberg, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating whether the initial coin offering (ICO) of BNB tokens in 2017 consisted of a sale of unregistered securities. A digital asset may fall under the SEC’s scrutiny if buyers intend to profit from the efforts of a company or project funded by the capital raise.

To understand whether BNB’s 39% rally in five weeks is justified, investors should analyze network use, including smart contract deposits, active users and decentralized applications adoption.

Mixed data from smart contract deposits and DApp usage

BNB Chain‘s primary decentralized application metric started to display weakness earlier in May as the network‘s total value locked (TVL) dropped below 24 million BNB.

*BNB Chain network Total Value Locked, BNB millions. Source: Defi Llama*

The chart above shows how BNB Chain‘s DApp deposits saw a 28% decline in three months as the indicator reached its lowest level since April 2021. As a comparison, Ethereum‘s TVL currently stands at 24.4 million ETH, an 11% decline over the same period. Moreover, another DApp competitor, Solana (SOL), saw a 2% TVL decrease to 50.2 million SOL.

On the bright side, on Aug. 3, the Binance exchange announced the launch of its first-ever token aimed at certifying verified user status on the platform. Binance Account Bound (BAB) token is a decentralized identity tool displayed to indicate that a wallet’s owner has passed Know Your Customer (KYC) verification on the exchange.

To confirm whether this drop in TVL should be concerning, one should analyze DApp usage metrics. Some DApps are not financially intensive, so the value deposited is irrelevant.

*BNB Chain’s most used DApps over seven days. Source: DappRadar*

As shown by DappRadar data, on Aug. 4, the number of BNB Chain network addresses interacting with decentralized applications gained 17% on average. The only negative change was SecondLive, a metaverse using decentralized finance and NFT technologies.

Increased DApps use is not backed by additional addresses

Growing interest in BNB Chain DApps was not reflected in active network addresses, which peaked at 2.27 million on Dec. 1, 2021, and has recently averaged slightly over 900,000.

*Active BNB smart chain addresses. Source: BSCScan*

Even though BNB Chain’s TVL has been hit hardest compared to similar smart contract platforms, there is solid network usage in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and games. Both Era7: Game of Truth and MOBOX: NFT Farmer rank in the top 10 DApps across every blockchain covered by DappRadar.

The above data suggest that BNB Chain’s TVL is losing ground versus competing chains, but investors should not be concerned because DApps activity in the network remains strong. As long as the Binance exchange does not face severe impediments in supporting the BNB Chain, there is little reason to be bearish on the BNB token.

2 key Ethereum derivatives metrics suggest that $880 was ETH’s bottom

Data shows Ethereum options traders are less bearish that before, and margin-based markets recently saw some investors go ultra-long on 491,000 ETH.

Ether (ETH) price is up 16% since July 1 and has outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) in the last 7 days. The move could be partially driven by investors clinging to their hopes that the Ethereum network transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus will be a bullish catalyst.

The next steps for this smart contract involve “the Merge,” which was previously known as Eth 2.0. The final trial on the Goerli test network is expected in July before the Ethereum mainnet gets the green light for its upgrade.

Since Terra’s ecosystem collapsed in mid-May, Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) has increased and the flight-to-quality in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry largely benefited Ethereum thanks to its robust security and battle-tested applications, including MakerDAO.

*Total value locked by market share. Source: Defi Llama*

Ethereum currently holds a 57% market share of TVL, up from 51% on April 8, according to data from Defi Llama. Despite this gain, the current $35 billion in deposits on the networks’ smart contracts seem small compared to the $100 billion seen in December 2021.

Further supporting the decrease in decentralized application use on Ethereum is a drop in the median transfer fees, or gas costs, which currently stand at $1.32. This figure is the lowest since mid-December 2020 when the network’s TVL stood at $13 billion. However, one might attribute part of the movement to higher use of layer-2 solutions such as Polygon and Arbitrum.

Options traders flirt with the neutral range

Traders should look at Ether’s derivatives markets data to understand how whales and market makers are positioned. In that sense, the 25% delta skew is a telling sign whenever professional traders overcharge for upside or downside protection.

If investors expect Ether price to rally, the skew indicator moves to -12% or lower, reflecting generalized excitement. On the other hand, a skew above 12% shows reluctance to take bearish strategies, typical of bear markets.

*Ether 30-day options 25% delta skew: Source: Laevitas.ch*

The skew indicator briefly touched the neutral-to-bearish range on July 7 as Ether completed a 19% rally in four days. But those option traders soon shifted to a more conservative approach, giving higher odds of a market downturn as the skew moved to the current 13% level. In short, the higher the index, the less inclined traders are to price downside risk.

Margin traders have turned extremely bullish

To confirm whether these movements were confined to the specific options instrument, one should analyze the margin markets. Lending allows investors to leverage their positions to buy more cryptocurrency. When those savvy traders open margin longs, their gains (and potential losses) depend on the Ether price increase.

Bitfinex margin traders are known for creating position contracts of 100,000 ETH or higher in a very short time, indicating the participation of whales and large arbitrage desks.

*Bitfinex ETH margin longs. Source: Coinglass*

Interestingly, these margin traders greatly increased their longs since June 13 and the current 491,000 contracts is near its highest level in 8 months. This data shows that these traders are effectively not expecting a disastrous price move below $900.

While there hasn’t been a significant shift in pro traders’ options risk metrics, margin traders remain bullish and are unwilling to decrease their longs despite the “crypto winter.”

If these whales and market makers are convinced that $880 on June 18 was the absolute bottom, traders may begin to believe that the worst leg of the bear market is behind us.

Ethereum price falls below $1.1K and data suggests the bottom is still a ways away

ETH price has stalled around the $1,100 level, but several data points suggest the altcoin’s sell-off is far from complete.

Ether (ETH) price nosedived below $1,100 in the early hours of June 14 to prices not seen since January 2021. The downside move marks a 78% correction since the $4,870 all-time high on Nov. 10, 2021.

More importantly, Ether has underperformed Bitcoin (BTC) by 33% between May 10 and June 14, 2022, and the last time a similar event happened was mid-2021.

*ETH/BTC price at Binance, 2021. Source: TradingView*

Even though Bitcoin oscillated in a narrow range two weeks before the 0.082 ETH/BTC peak, this period marked the “DeFi Summer” peak when the Ethereum network’s total value locked (TVL) catapulted to $93 billion from $42 billion two months earlier.

What’s behind Ether’s 2021 underperformance?

Before jumping to conclusions, a broader set of data is needed to understand what led to the 31% correction in the ETH/BTC price in 2021. Looking at the number of active addresses is a good place to start.

*Ethereum network daily active addresses, 7-day average. Source: CoinMetrics*

Data shows steady growth in active addresses, which increased from 595,620 in mid-March to 857,520 in mid-May. So, not only did the TVL growth take investors by surprise, but so did the number of users.

The 31% Ether underperformance versus Bitcoin back in June 2021 reflected a cool-off period after unprecedented growth in the Ethereum ecosystem. The consequence for Ether’s price was devastating, and a 56% correction followed that DeFi Summer.

*Ether/USD price at Coinbase, 2021. Source: TradingView*

One must compare recent data to understand whether Ether is heading to a similar outcome. In that sense, those who waited for the 31% miss versus Bitcoin’s price bought the altcoin at a cycle low near $1,800 on June 27, 2021, and the price increased 83% in 50 days.

Is Ether flashing a buy signal right now?

This time, there is no DeFi Summer and before this year’s 33% negative performance versus Bitcoin, the active address indicator was already slightly bearish.

By May 10, 2022, Ethereum had 563,160 active addresses, in the lower range from the past couple of months. This is the exact opposite of the mid-2021 movement that occurred as Ether price accelerated its losses in BTC terms.

One might still think that despite a relatively flat number of users, the Ethereum network had been growing by presenting a higher TVL.

*Ethereum network total value locked, USD. Source: Defillama*

Data shows that on May 10, 2022, the Ethereum network TVL held $87 billion in deposits, down from $102 billion a month prior. Therefore, there is no correlation between the mid-2021 cool-off after DeFi Summer and the current 33% Ether price downturn versus BTC.

These metrics show no evidence of similarity between the two periods, but $1,200 might as well be a cycle low, and this will depend on other factors apart from the network’s use.

Considering how weak active addresses and TVL data were before the recent price correction, investors should be extra careful when trying to predict a market bottom.

3 reasons why Ethereum price is pinned below $2,000

ETH price is meeting strong resistance at the $2,000 level and these trading metrics explain why.

Ether’s (ETH) market structure continues to be bearish despite the failed attempt to break the descending channel resistance at $2,000 on May 31. This three-week-long price formation could mean that an eventual retest of the $1,700 support is underway.

*Ether/USD 4-hour price at Bitstamp. Source: TradingView*

On the non-crypto side, a number of equities-related factors are translating to negative sentiment in the crypto market. This week Microsoft (MSFT) lowered its profit and revenue outlook, citing challenging macroeconomic conditions. The U.S. Federal Reserve signalled in its periodic “Beige Book” that economic activity may have cooled in some parts of the country and the Fed is about to reduce its $9 trillion asset portfolio to combat persistent inflation.

On the bright side, an institutional investor survey published by The Economist magazine showed that 85% of the respondents agreed that open-source cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH) are useful as diversifiers in portfolio or treasury accounts.

From the macroeconomic perspective, investors are still risk-averse, which could translate to a reduced appetite for cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum still has a mountain to climb

The Ethereum network’s total value locked (TVL), the total amount of assets deposited to the network, has dropped by 5.5% since Ether began its downtrend three weeks ago.

*Ethereum network total value locked, ETH. Source: Defi Llama*

The network’s TVL peaked at 28.7 billion Ether on May 10 and currently stands at 27.1 million. Decentralized finance (DeFi) deposits were deeply impacted by the USD Terra (UST) — now known as TerraUSD Classic (USTC) — stablecoin collapse on May 10. All things considered, the indicator shows a moderate decrease, which is somewhat expected after such an unprecedented event.

To understand how professional traders are positioned, let’s look at Ether’s futures market data. Quarterly futures are whales and arbitrage desks’ preferred instruments due to their lack of a fluctuating funding rate.

These fixed-month contracts usually trade at a 5% to 12% premium to spot markets, indicating that sellers request more money to withhold settlement longer. This situation is also common in traditional assets such as stocks and commodities.

*Ether futures 3-month annualized premium. Source: Laevitas*

Over the past month, Ether’s futures contracts premium has remained near 3%, which is below the 5% neutral-market threshold. The lack of leverage demand from buyers is evident as the current 2.5% basis indicator remains depressed despite Ether’s 24% negative performance in three weeks.

Fear a global downturn continues to impact crypto prices

Ether’s crash to $1,700 on May 27 drained any leftover bullish sentiment and, more importantly, caused $235 million in leverage long futures contract liquidations. Even though Ether price tested the $2,000 resistance on May 31, there is no evidence of strength from derivatives or DeFi deposits, according to the TVL metric.

As investors’ focus remains on traditional markets and the impacts of global macroeconomic worsening conditions, there is little hope for a sustainable Ether price decoupling to the upside.