After a staggering nine-day drop that took the price to yearly lows, the Ethereum network has managed to stabilize near 2,150 dollars this Monday. However, according to data from specialized platforms and statements by Vitalik Buterin, the ETH derivatives markets maintain a skeptical stance due to the lack of optimism from the majority of institutional investors.
With a 22% increase from its lowest point, the digital asset attempts to consolidate its position amid a generalized macroeconomic recovery. However, monthly futures are trading at a reduced 3% premium, placing themselves below the 5% neutral threshold that usually indicates a solid bullish sentiment in the short term for most experienced professional traders within the sector.
The challenge of scalability and the resurgence of inflationary supply
The platform’s performance has been 9% lower than the global crypto-asset market average during this year 2026. Despite this, the network maintains absolute dominance in total value locked, concentrating more than 58% of the deposits of the entire current decentralized financial industry, greatly surpassing its closest rivals in terms of total volume and daily active users.
Adding layer 2 solutions such as Arbitrum and Base, the Ethereum infrastructure covers 65% of the sector, far exceeding competitors like Solana. However, Vitalik Buterin recognized that layer 2 decentralization has turned out to be a much more complex and slower process than what was initially projected for the main network in its original long-term technical vision.
Due to a notable decrease in activity within the main network, the fee-burning mechanism has lost its effectiveness recently. As a direct consequence, the annualized supply inflation reached a worrying 0.8%, reversing the deflationary trend that investors expected to see consolidated after the last technical updates carried out during the course of last year on the main network.
Can Ethereum regain its bullish momentum against increasing inflationary pressure?
The macroeconomic environment of the United States, marked by uncertainty in the labor market, continues to weigh on the ETH derivatives markets. Investors show a clear risk aversion regarding the sustainability of investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, which significantly limits the flow of capital entering the highest market capitalization digital risk assets currently available for trading.
The importance of this milestone lies in the resilience demonstrated by the leading smart contract blockchain during periods of high volatility. Although scalability solutions face criticism for their centralization, the ecosystem remains the main engine of global finance thanks to its robust technical architecture established over many years of continuous and successful development by the core community.
For investors, this consolidation phase represents a critical moment where the supply of tokens again exceeds the demand for effective use. If the ETH derivatives markets do not show clear signs of recovery, the price could face new significant technical corrections before attempting to return to previous historical highs during the course of this same market cycle in the future.
Looking ahead, the success of the network will depend on the adjustments suggested by its co-founder to prioritize the native scalability of the system. Without a doubt, stabilizing on-chain activity will be decisive to recover the confidence of traders and reactivate the sustainable growth cycle that the project needs to maintain its absolute relevance against the growing competition.
