Ethereum Price News: Buyers’ Commitment Will Be Tested at $1.8K

Ethereum (ETH) has gone up by nearly 6% in the past 24 hours, and it is currently approaching a key level at $1,800. The price action’s behavior after hitting that mark will likely determine the token’s course for the next few weeks.

Trading volumes have increased recently, indicating that buying pressure has been rising after ETH bounced off $1,550.

Meanwhile, investors’ sentiment has flipped in the past couple of days, as net inflows to Ethereum-linked exchange-traded funds (ETFs) turned positive after a 9-day streak of outflows.

In two days, investors poured $44 million into these vehicles, which is a negligible figure compared to the usual amounts that ETFs tend to handle.

Similarly, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index has recovered slightly, moving from an Extreme Fear reading of 16 to 23 (Fear) at the time of writing.

On-Chain Metrics Still Favor a Bearish Outlook for ETH

Despite this recent uptick, ETH is not out of the woods yet, as the price action will soon retest a former support area at $1,800 that could act as a strong ceiling and will provide evidence of sellers’ persistence if the price plummets right after hitting this mark.

Looking at on-chain data, we continue to see a steady decline in DEX volumes, as demand for DeFi applications and trading activity continues to be depressed.

Data from DeFi Llama shows that ETH booked its first consecutive monthly drop in DEX volumes, as this metric dropped by 7.2% last month to $32.7 billion. This downtrend started in February, back when DEX volumes sat at $56 billion, and has persisted since then.

Moreover, the market cap of all stablecoins within the Ethereum blockchain has been progressively dropping since November last year, moving from $168 billion to $154 billion as of last month. Stablecoin outflows tend to be the norm during bear markets. Until this trend reverses, ETH’s recovery may not begin.

No Signs of a Trend Reversal for ETH as Trading Volumes Remain Thin

We have been tracking an on-chain signal that has typically marked the end of previous bull markets. That is a crossover between the 7-day and 30-day moving averages for trading volumes.

The reason why this metric has worked is that it indicates when buying interest is increasing during price recoveries. This has not happened yet, which means that it is too early to tell if this rebound in ETH’s price is the beginning of the end of this bull market.

The two lines remain at a fair distance, indicating that volumes remain thin. The market needs a strong catalyst to push ETH back to higher levels like $2,000. Back in April 2025, that catalyst was the Pectra upgrade.

We don’t see exactly what could help ETH make a comeback this time. One potential scenario would be a rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve, but that’s not on the table for the time being.

Looking at the charts, we do see a bullish divergence in the Relative Strength Index (RSI). This tends to indicate that bearish momentum has diminished.

Although this increases the odds of a bullish breakout, we need to see the price action push past $1,800 decisively to confirm that ETH could be starting to reverse course.