ETH falls to four-month low under $3,000 as on-chain metrics weaken, but upgrades keep long-term $5,000 thesis

Ethereum trades around $3,100, roughly flat over the past year. Major protocol upgrades — the Merge (PoS), May’s Pectra upgrade adding “blobs,” and the upcoming Fusaka upgrade to increase per-block data capacity — are cited as improving utility, staking appeal and use cases. Transaction volume, active wallets and TVL show limited but meaningful growth. Spot ETH ETF flows have been inconsistent amid macro/rate uncertainty, but bullish investors view ETH as undervalued and expect it could breach $5,000 and reach a new all-time high by 2026.
AI Analysis
The story cites concrete network upgrades (Merge, Pectra, Fusaka) that increase utility, staking appeal and data capacity and notes limited but meaningful growth in transaction volume, active wallets and TVL; inconsistent spot-ETF flows and macro uncertainty temper immediacy. Those facts support a bullish long-term view toward $5,000 by 2026 but offer limited, non-immediate trading triggers, so sentiment is positive but short-term impact is low-to-moderate.