Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH holds $2,300 despite rising fees and capital exodus from recent DeFi exploit

Ethereum price today: $2,320

• Ethereum total fees have spiked to their second-highest level since the October 10 leverage flush.
• DeFi protocols on Ethereum have seen a capital exodus of roughly $10.7 billion over the past five days.
• ETH has held the ascending triangle support near $2,300, strengthened by the extension of the US-Iran ceasefire.

Ethereum (ETH) has seen a spike in total fees captured on its mainnet over the past week. The metric has surged to its second-highest level since the October 10 leverage flush, reducing ETH's supply, which has been rising following a series of upgrades that have lowered transaction fees on the mainnet.

Following the Ethereum London upgrade, a rise in total fees reduces ETH's circulating supply as the network burns base fees.

While the move appears bullish on the surface, the spike can be traced to a surge in network activity after the $292 million KelpDAO exploit triggered a massive capital flight from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

Ethereum's total value locked (TVL) has dropped by roughly $10.7 billion to $45.8 billion over the past five days, according to DefiLlama data. At the same time, active addresses have trended downward.

Despite the recent incident and capital flight, ETH has held steady, hovering around $2,300-$2,400 as of writing on Thursday. A potential reason for the resilience stems from positive sentiment surrounding the US extension of its ceasefire with Iran and the steady accumulation of large holders.

A key contributor to demand is Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies (BMNR), which likely began another round of accumulation over the past few hours.

According to smart money tracker Lookonchain, three newly created wallets likely linked to BitMine received 100,000 ETH from digital asset custodian BitGo. The firm also staked an additional 93,600 ETH, pushing its total holdings to 3.489 million ETH.

BitMine has yet to confirm the purchase. It last reported holdings of 4.97 million ETH on Monday.

Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH could hold ascending triangle and 20-day EMA supports

Ethereum has witnessed $74 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, led by $62.7 million in long liquidations, per Coinglass data.

On the daily chart, ETH maintains a constructive near-term bias as it holds above the 20-day and 50-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), around $2,275 and $2,226, respectively, and remains supported by the rising trendline near $2,308.

Momentum is mildly positive, with the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovering in neutral territory near 55 and the Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) around mid-range, suggesting ongoing consolidation within an overall upward phase rather than stretched conditions.

On the topside, initial resistance is aligned with the convergence of the 100-day EMA and the horizontal barrier at $2,388. A sustained break above this zone would open the way toward $2,746.

On the downside, immediate support lies at the trendline around $2,308, ahead of the 20- and 50-day EMAs, with further static floors at $2,211 and $2,107. A loss of these levels would expose deeper supports near $1,909 and $1,741.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool.)