Fundamentally, Ethereum has never looked in a better shape. However, ETH price action has not reflected this.
It has been 100 days since the Ethereum Merge, and the network has become more environmentally sustainable and resilient.
Proof-of-work mining was replaced with a proof-of-stake consensus model. This has reduced network energy consumption by more than 99%.
On Dec. 25, ETH developer “superphiz” commented on the narrative stating, “we just did the right thing.”
According to Beaconcha.in, there is currently 15.7 million ETH staked, accounting for around 13% of the total supply. At today’s prices, it is valued at around $19.2 billion.
Additionally, there are currently more than 490,000 active validators on the Ethereum network. Bitcoin’s hash rate tanked due to severe weather conditions and stress on energy grids in the United States. Ethereum no longer has this issue.
Ethereum Leads NFT Activity
Staking is not the only bullish fundamental for Ethereum. It is also the world’s top NFT ecosystem. According to Nansen, a total of $23.7 billion in NFTs were minted and traded on Ethereum in 2022.
Furthermore, it is way ahead of the second-largest NFT ecosystem, Solana. Other touted ‘Ethereum killers,’ such as Cardano and Polkadot, don’t even come close regarding NFT activity.
Ethereum’s issuance is currently close to zero, according to the Ultrasound.Money tracker. The supply is growing by just 0.012% per year and it has shrunk marginally from its peak of 121.3K ETH.
The biggest gas guzzler at the moment is the CoinTool XEN batch minter, which has burnt 164 ETH over the past 24 hours. XEN is a token that anyone can mint and has pyramid-type tokenomics but it still appears to be popular.
Gloomy Price Predictions for ETH
The positive fundamentals for the network and ecosystem have not been reflected in price action. Ethereum is currently trading flat on the day at $1,220 at the time of writing.
There has been virtually no movement in prices over the weekend as the asset has remained range-bound at the $1,200 level.
However, analysts are predicting more price pain ahead for ETH. Additionally, technical indicators suggest that support at current levels could be broken soon.
Furthermore, bearish triangles are also present. This has led one analyst to predict a fall to $1,080 for ETH prices.
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