Ethereum Network Usage Hits Record High—But Traders More Bullish on Gold

The Ethereum web is processing much transactions than ever before, but marketplace sentiment remains comparatively cool, with prediction marketplace traders showing much optimism for golden than for the second-largest cryptocurrency.

The 7-day moving mean of regular transaction number for Ethereum deed a caller all-time precocious of 2.023 cardinal connected January 4, per information from CryptoQuant, indicating an uptick successful users interacting with the blockchain.

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The surge is chiefly driven by “accelerating adoption of real-world plus tokenization, alongside a broader marketplace betterment that has lifted token transportation enactment crossed the network,” Ryan Lee, main probe expert astatine Bitget, told Decrypt.

Ethereum is 1 of the starring platforms for RWA adoption, reinforcing the network’s relation arsenic halfway fiscal infrastructure alternatively than a purely speculative platform.

Despite the web activity’s propulsion to grounds highs, Ethereum’s terms enactment has lagged, with ETH presently trading astatine $3,240, up 2.2% implicit the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data, and 8.9% implicit the past 7 days.

This disconnect reflects the world that short-term Ethereum pricing remains much delicate to liquidity conditions and marketplace science than on-chain usage alone, according to Lee.

Recent information underscore this sentiment gap, with traders successful prediction markets showing much optimism for golden than for the second-largest cryptocurrency.

With golden presently trading astatine astir $4,460, users connected prediction marketplace Myriad—owned by Decrypt’s genitor company, Dastan—assign a greater accidental to golden reaching $5,000 than Ethereum successful the adjacent term.

However, investors look overmuch much assured successful a short-term people of $4,000 for ETH, putting a 58% accidental connected Ethereum rallying to $4,000 alternatively than falling to $2,500, a fig that has risen from 43% astatine the commencement of the year.

Lee framed the prediction information favoring golden arsenic a short-term effect to geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, not a structural abandonment of crypto’s “digital gold” narrative.

Ethereum’s semipermanent concern lawsuit remains anchored successful its dominance crossed DeFi and tokenized assets, areas wherever golden has nary functional equivalent, helium noted.

The cardinal catalyst to realign terms with fundamentals, Lee suggested, is simply a sustained emergence successful on-chain ETH accumulation by semipermanent holders. He argued that arsenic much ETH is absorbed for usage wrong RWAs and DeFi, effectual proviso tightens, supporting much durable terms appreciation and reinforcing Ethereum's cardinal relation successful integer plus innovation.