#ChartoftheDay According to data from Etherscan, the current gas fee on the #Ethereum network has dropped to 3 gwei, reflecting reduced network activity.

Ethereum’s performance has been lukewarm since the Dencun upgrade, both on the price and network activity side. On the price side, as the second largest crypto by market cap, Ether has been continuously underperforming Bitcoin this year. While Bitcoin’s gains were mostly driven by the approval of spot ETFs, Ether hasn’t had a chance to copy BTC’s success yet. Despite progress, spot ETH ETFs still need to jump a few hurdles before they can begin trading and drawing in institutional money.

From the narrative perspective, Ethereum’s narrative is weak. It is losing liquidity and network activity to Layer2 networks and cheaper Layer1s like Solana. As a result, the demand for Ether as a gas token is decreasing, leading to its poor price performance.

To some extent, the restaking narrative brought forth by Eigenlayer revitalized Ether. However, market enthusiasm towards this narrative has significantly cooled since the second quarter of this year. For one thing, Eigenlayer and the other restaking projects announced their token launch plans consecutively, reducing user incentives. For another, liquidity has been in a crunch due to macro situations.

It will be worth watching whether the final approval of $ETH spot ETFs will reverse the Ethereum ecosystem's current lull.