Ethereum Price Watch: Will ETH Finally Break the $4,000 Barrier?

• Ethereum’s (ETH) price has declined to a weekly low as its futures Open Interest falls from $28 billion to $26 billion. 
• An analyst has highlighted that ETH could outperform Bitcoin in 2025 as a massive amount of inflow could move into the asset in January. 

Ethereum (ETH) has lost a huge amount of its gains from the previous trading session as it declined to $3.3k in a 5.6% fall. According to our market data, the asset conversely had a 25% surge in its daily trading volume, with $22.7 billion changing hands at press time.

Amid the backdrop of this bearish development, the ETH futures open interest continues its steady decline as it reaches $26 billion from its monthly high of $28 billion. Meanwhile, multiple market indicators have confirmed a possible bullish reversal.

The Bullish Side of Ethereum

Analyzing Defi Llama data, we observed that ETH’s Total Value Locked (TVL) in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem had surged by 5.50% on its monthly chart. Comparatively, the TVLs of Solana and Tron fell by 3% within the same time frame. Ethereum has also recorded a positive growth in the ratio of Active Addresses (AA). According to data, the AA has surged from the October low of 0.37% to 0.57%. Specifically, the total number of ETH AA has crossed the 927,000 line.

Looking into the Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) score of ETH, we observed a surge to 1.64 as an increment of 2.35% was recorded on the daily chart. It is important to note that an MVRV score of below 3.8 signifies that the underlying asset is relatively undervalued.

Analyzing another report by the Electric Capital Developer, we discovered that Ethereum has cemented its position as the leading smart contract platform. However, Solana emerged as the top competitor, becoming the first blockchain to challenge the dominance of Ethereum in eight years, according to the report.

Ethereum (ETH) Price Analysis

According to analyst Michael van de Poppe, ETH could record a massive level of inflow in January 2025 while Bitcoin consolidates from outflows. Per his observation, this could trigger the start of an “altcoin run in the Ethereum ecosystem.” For ETF Store president Nate Geraci, the spot ETH ETFs could outperform Bitcoin ETFs in 2025.

Updated chart showing cumulative flows into gold, btc, & eth ETFs…
Gold ETFs launched Nov 2004.
Btc ETFs in Jan 2024.
Eth ETFs July 2024.
Eth ETFs currently on pace w/ gold, but I expect inflows to accelerate from here.
Btc ETF flows are simply ridiculous.
via @Todd_Sohn pic.twitter.com/efh8Hezz3e— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) December 19, 2024

Meanwhile, crypto trader Brent believes that ETH is like a “ball forcibly held underwater.” Joining the discussion, Infinex founder Kain Warwick disclosed that Ethereum has a lot of tailwinds that will push the price to a significant level in 2025.

The longer you coil it, the more it’s going to spring. There are a lot of tailwinds — and there’s also a few things holding it back — but when it does break out and people are going to say, ‘Oh shit…In 2025, I think we’ll see account abstraction get better, L2 interoperability will get a lot better, and we’ll see the UX between L2s improve a lot as well.