$ETH

Ethereum has recently been stuck at the psychological barrier of $3000, repeatedly rubbing against it, as if under a binding spell. On-chain data has revealed a fatal flaw—while the TVL of Layer 2 has surpassed $40 billion, setting a historical high, the daily active addresses on the mainnet have shrunk to their lowest level since the DeFi summer of 2020. This "false prosperity" has even caused the most loyal Ethereum believers to waver. Vitalik Buterin's latest proposed "Purge" upgrade concept sounds more like a last-ditch effort to save a bloated blockchain.

Institutional operations are becoming increasingly divided; Grayscale's ETHE fund continues to bleed by reducing its holdings, while a European family office has been reported to secretly buy 500,000 ETH in dark pools. Ironically, while the U.S. SEC uses the "securitization" club to hit Ethereum, the Swiss stock exchange quietly launched the world's first structured note linked to ETH, with annual coupon rates directly tied to Ethereum staking rewards. This regulatory arbitrage game is always played most skillfully by traditional financial giants.

The derivatives market is brewing a storm; the ETH quarterly futures premium rate has dropped to its lowest point since the merge, yet the open interest in call options has surged by 300%. This extreme divergence often signals a major shift—either a black swan event for ETFs or a liquidity crisis triggered by staking withdrawals. Do you think this time it can truly break through the historical high, or will it become the next victim of "buy the expectation, sell the news"?

(On-chain detectives have discovered that a certain whale address has deposited 90,000 ETH to Kraken through 17 intermediary addresses in the past 48 hours, while simultaneously laying out equivalent call options on Deribit. This contradictory operation is strikingly similar to the tactics seen at the peak of the 2021 bull market...)