On April 2, 2025, Ethereum (ETH) is showing clear signs of weakness as decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume declines sharply. The number of unique daily traders has dropped to around 40,000 addresses – the lowest in 12 months, and DEX trading volume has nearly halved, from $112 billion (December 2024) to $57 billion. This reflects a severe drop in activity on the Ethereum mainnet, putting significant pressure on ETH prices.


Analysis: Decreasing Activity, Increasing Competition

The decline in trading volume indicates that $ETH is losing appeal among retail traders, especially as mainnet transaction fees fall to a 5-year low ($0.40, according to previous articles), but not enough to retain users. Meanwhile, Layer-2 solutions such as #Base (owned by Coinbase) continue to maintain significant trading volume (estimated at $20 billion in Q1/2025, according to DefiLlama), indicating that users are shifting to scalable solutions to avoid fees and congestion.


At the same time, $SOL – a major competitor to Ethereum – continues to emerge as an alternative trading destination. With high transaction speeds (65,000 TPS compared to 15 TPS of Ethereum mainnet, according to Solana Foundation) and low fees ($0.00025/transaction), Solana has attracted substantial capital inflow (DEX volume reaching $70 billion in Q1/2025). This competition is reducing Ethereum's market share in the DeFi space, which once accounted for 60% (now down to 45%, according to #DeFiLlama ).


Short-Term Negative Forecast

In the short term, ETH is at risk of further depreciation due to pressure from low trading activity and increasing competition. The current ETH price of $1,830 has decreased by 45% in Q1/2025 (according to CoinGecko), and with a bearish market sentiment (crypto market cap down 11.65% to $2.88 trillion), ETH could fall to the support level of $1,500 in the coming weeks – a further drop of 18%. If Solana continues to dominate DeFi market share and Layer-2 solutions are not enough to pull back activity on the mainnet, confidence in Ethereum will decline, pushing ETH prices into a negative trend.


Risk warning: Investing in ETH carries high risks due to price volatility and industry competition. Please consider carefully before participating. #anhbacong