The market value of ether (ETH), the second-largest digital asset by market cap, has taken a big toll of late. The price of ETH is at the moment of writing hovering around $3,100, down about 36 percent since its all-time-high on the 10th of November. Ether hasn’t seen this low valuation since the beginning of October 2021.
However, not all clouds on the horizon are dark, there are in fact strong indicators that many market participants have strong conviction in the asset.
DeFi TVL rockets in 24 hours
Despite the recent price action, Total Value Locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols increased by about 14 percent. The TVL took a jump from $78.4 billion to $91.4 billion in less than 24 hours. However, a steep climb is still down over 18 percent from all-time-high at $111,7 billion set on the 9th of November.
DeFi’s top protocol Maker (MKR) holds a dominance of 17.7 percent and $16.15 billion locked in smart contracts, most of which is collateral supporting the stablecoin DAI.
At the same time, according to data from IntoTheBlock, the number of long-term holders of ether, defined as addresses that have held ether for over one year, reached new highs with 40.87 million addresses holding 48.42 million ETH. The volume held by these addresses increased from $48 million to $48.42 since December.
Non-exchange ETH continue to hoard
The amount of ETH held by the top ten non-exchange “whale” addresses has now increased to 25.7 million ETH. This metric has seen nothing but an increase from around ten million ETH since the launch of the Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain.
Meanwhile, the top ten exchange addresses continue falling, with only 3.57 million ETH on these wallets. Ether on exchange addresses shows a steady decline since mid-August 2020, and the ratio between holdings on non-exchange and exchange addresses is the highest since the inception of Ethereum.
As Ethereum’s price dipped below $3,000 on Tuesday, gas fees in gwei per transaction spiked up to 188, the highest level since October 27th. Average fees (in USD) are more modest, currently sitting at $23 per transaction.
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