Ethereum Rises 3% Amid Tokenization Boom, Can ETH Break Above the US$1,800 Level?
Ether (ETH) Rises 3% but Still Struggles to Break Above $1,800
Ether (ETH) gained 3% between Thursday and Friday, outperforming the broader cryptocurrency market. The rally was driven by the growing trend of asset tokenization, the successful launch of Robinhood Chain, and continued ETH purchases by companies for their corporate treasury holdings.
Despite the gains, ETH failed to break above the $1,800 level as on-chain and derivatives indicators continue to show weak momentum. This has raised questions about whether ETH could retest the $1,700 support level.
The successful launch of the Robinhood Chain layer-2 network has boosted sentiment around Ethereum. The new blockchain uses ETH as its native gas token and has already attracted more than $106 million in bridge deposits.
In addition, Robinhood now offers tokenized stocks to customers in 120 countries, further strengthening the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem.
According to data from Rwa.xyz, Ethereum continues to dominate the real-world asset (RWA) tokenization market with a 47% market share. Excluding stablecoins, notable tokenized assets include Tether Gold (XAUT), Ondo US Dollar Yield (USDY), and Franklin Templeton’s government bond fund (iBENJI). Meanwhile, the tokenized stock market is led by STRCx from xStocks and CRCLon from Ondo.
Leon Waidmann, Head of Research at Lisk, noted that for the first time in history, Ethereum’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has reached $260 billion, surpassing Ether’s current market capitalization of around $210 billion. According to Waidmann, this suggests that ETH is still undervalued, with its relative valuation now lower than during the 2022 bear market.
On the other hand, despite the growing adoption of Ethereum’s layer-2 solutions and continued institutional inflows, on-chain data still points to slowing network activity. The 2026 bear market has reduced demand for blockchain usage, while competing networks have gained traction in sectors such as synthetic perpetual futures and automated yield vaults.
Weekly revenue generated by decentralized applications (DApps) on Ethereum has fallen to around $11 million, down from $20 million in the first quarter of 2026. The top contributors include Sky with $3.1 million, Titan Builder with $2.4 million, and Chainlink with $1.1 million. At the same time, the number of active addresses has declined to 3.2 million from 5.4 million, according to DefiLlama.
In the derivatives market, the annualized funding rate for ETH perpetual futures dropped to 3% on Saturday, below the neutral 6% threshold. This indicates that demand for bullish positions remains weak. The funding rate had previously climbed to 12% on Friday, so the decline suggests that bullish traders have become less confident. Even so, institutional capital inflows are believed to be the primary driver behind ETH’s recent price gains.
Arkham Intelligence also reported a withdrawal of 20,500 ETH, worth approximately $36 million, from Galaxy Digital to a new wallet on Thursday. The transaction pattern is similar to previous ETH purchases made by BitMine Immersion (BMNR).
Over the past 30 days, BitMine has added approximately 198,370 ETH to its treasury reserves. The company now holds around $10.3 billion worth of ETH.
Overall, Ethereum continues to benefit from strong fundamentals, supported by the growth of asset tokenization and ongoing institutional accumulation. However, weak on-chain activity and soft derivatives market indicators continue to limit its upside potential. Even so, BitMine’s aggressive accumulation strategy suggests that the likelihood of ETH revisiting the $1,700 level remains relatively low for now.
