April was a tumultuous month for Ether (ETH). The cryptocurrency saw its price peak at $3,723 on April 8, only to plummet by 30% over the next five days, bottoming out at a 50-day low of $2,863. Despite a brief recovery attempt on April 14, ETH failed to surpass the $3,200 resistance level, signaling further potential declines.
However, on April 23, the price managed to climb back above $3,200, possibly driven by a rising interest in Ethereum DApps. This interest was echoed by a significant increase in the network’s total value locked (TVL), which hit a new high since July 2022—reaching $58 billion on April 12 and nearly that at $56.9 billion by April 28—highlighting robust activity in the DeFi sector.
Uncertainty around the U.S. approval of spot Ethereum ETFs, particularly with an impending SEC decision on VanEck’s proposal, remained a concern for investors, possibly affecting market sentiment. By month’s end, ETH had fallen to $3,000.
Moreover, the month also saw a downturn in Ethereum’s network activity compared to March. Daily active addresses declined from 534,000 on March 20 to 379,000 on April 24, though they did see a slight rebound to 474,000 by April 30. There was also a noticeable drop in daily transactions, decreasing from 1.4 million on March 19 to 1.1 million on April 27.
In April, Ethereum-based cryptocurrency investment products saw a downturn, with outflows totaling $38 million, as reported by CoinShares on April 29. In contrast, other altcoins such as Solana, Litecoin, and Chainlink experienced inflows of $4 million, $3 million, and $2.8 million respectively during the same timeframe.
Additionally, the supply of Ethereum on exchanges continued to diminish throughout April, outpacing the decline seen with Bitcoin. This suggests a diminishing availability of Ethereum for trading, potentially indicating an impending scarcity. This trend is consistent with the behavior of investors who are increasingly holding onto their Ethereum for longer durations, likely incorporating it into their long-term investment strategies. Supporting this trend, other metrics like the high staking ratio also suggest long-term holding.
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s gas fees dropped to a six-month low in April following the DenCun upgrade on March 13. This decrease in transaction costs, which saw the average fee dip to $1.12 on April 27, might signal a looming rally for altcoins, as per analysis by crypto data analysts at Santiment, shared in a post on platform X on April 28.
