It has to be said that after the completion of milestone events such as its "10th anniversary" and the approval of the Ethereum spot ETF, as a blockchain network ecosystem with a market value of nearly US$284 billion, Ethereum inevitably began to face its own "minor crisis". It should have been rising steadily, but it has been falling all the way.

Can Ethereum, which has always been weak, still rise?

Ethereum (ETH) has been showing signs of potential price growth, with funding rates suggesting this could be the calm before a price surge. Historically, whenever funding rates are low, ETH’s price has surged.

At press time, ETH’s funding rate is trading at a low of between 0.002 and 0.005. Historically, this level has usually signaled price increases.
If the rate exceeds 0.015, as it did during previous bull runs, Ethereum’s price could rise further. The last time ETH’s funding rate reached this level, the price surged from $1,500 to $4,000.

Based on historical trends, a similar situation could occur as Ethereum enters the final quarter of the year, traditionally a period of strong market movement.
Support from the futures market is expected to play a key role in this potential price rally, with funding rates being a key indicator to watch for price increases.

ETH technical analysis starts to look good

Ethereum’s technical analysis also points to a bullish outlook. Lately, ETH has been consolidating inside a broadening wedge pattern, with its RSI showing a strong bullish divergence.
This means that ETH may soon test higher price levels, possibly $3,500 to $3,600 in the short term. If Ethereum can break out of this range, it may target $5,000 in the coming months.

The current market trend is bouncing off the downtrend line and heading upwards, which suggests that ETH could be poised for higher gains. Especially if market conditions are similar to past performance.

Daily Gas Usage Hits All-Time High

Ethereum’s network activity also remains strong. On September 1, daily gas usage hit an all-time high of 109 billion, despite lower gas prices in recent weeks.

This milestone shows that the Ethereum network remains highly active, refuting the notion that ETH’s influence is waning. In fact, high gas usage suggests that demand for Ethereum remains intact.

ETH on-chain stablecoin transaction volume hits a new high

In addition to gas consumption, Ethereum's on-chain stablecoin transaction volume also hit a record high, with transaction volume reaching $1.46 trillion, more than double the $650 billion at the beginning of the year.

DAI leads the stablecoin market with $960 billion in trading volume, while USDT and USDC also continue to dominate.
The rise in stablecoin trading volume is due to the increasing demand for DeFi and the continued participation of traditional finance. An example is PayPal's PYUSD, which has now risen to $2.4 billion.

L2 adoption hits new highs

Finally, Layer 2 (L2) adoption also hit new highs, contributing to Ethereum’s long-term growth. L2 solutions such as Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, and Mantle are driving Ethereum’s scalability and adoption. This further supports the case for ETH’s price to move higher in the long term.

Currently, many people in the market are pessimistic about ETH. In addition to the problems existing in the Ethereum ecosystem itself, the Ethereum Foundation continues to sell off, and the founder Vitalik Buterin is dating girls every day. It is also affected by the overall market conditions of the current crypto market. Except for Bitcoin, the fluctuations of most altcoins have far exceeded ETH. It's just that the market has given ETH too high expectations.

In addition, the Ethereum ecosystem is still worth looking forward to. For example, the Pectra upgrade is the next major milestone of Ethereum, which is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2025. It will merge the Prague (execution layer) and Electra (consensus layer) updates. It is likely that the Pectra upgrade will begin to be hyped in the fourth quarter of this year.