Ethereum (ETH) Price: No Leverage, No Problem — ETH’s Rally Is Built on Real Buying

TLDR

• ETH rallied ~10% and briefly recovered $1,800 after Net Taker Volume flipped positive on June 28
• Open interest stayed flat during the rally, meaning the move is not driven by leverage
• ETH faces resistance at the 50-day EMA around $1,806
• US ETH spot ETFs posted three straight days of net inflows
• Vitalik Buterin outlined “Lean Ethereum,” a multi-year protocol overhaul that could cut ERC20 fees by over 10x

Ethereum has climbed around 10% over the past week, briefly touching $1,800 for the first time in recent weeks. The move came after the ETH Net Taker Volume metric flipped positive on June 28, signaling that buyers were taking control in perpetual markets. Since that flip, ETH has gained close to 14%.

What stands out about this rally is that open interest has stayed flat throughout. That means traders are not piling in with borrowed money. The Estimated Leverage Ratio has not risen meaningfully either since its June decline. When a price move happens without a leverage spike, it tends to be more stable because there is less risk of a cascade of forced liquidations.

The ETH Coinbase Premium Index, which tracks US buyer sentiment, remains negative. But it has pulled back from the extreme levels it hit at the start of July, suggesting US-based demand is slowly returning.

US spot ETH ETFs have also posted three straight days of net inflows, according to SoSoValue data. That is a small but consistent signal of institutional interest picking up.

Resistance Ahead at $1,806

ETH is now running into a key technical wall. The 50-day Exponential Moving Average sits at $1,806, which lines up with a horizontal resistance level at the same price. The RSI stands at 57, which is constructive but not yet in full bull territory. The Stochastic Oscillator is near 86, hinting at short-term overbought conditions.

If ETH can push past $1,806, the next targets are $1,909 and then the 100-day EMA at $1,970. Above that, $2,018 and $2,108 are the next hurdles. On the downside, support sits at $1,741, then $1,713 at the 20-day EMA.

Crypto analyst Daan Crypto Trades weighed in on the price action, noting that ETH has closed its weekly and daily candles back inside the $1,750–$2,400 range. He said a move above the local high at $1,850 would mark a change in market structure and a sign of strength. He added that such a move would be his trigger to start targeting the range high.

Vitalik Buterin Unveils “Lean Ethereum” Roadmap

On the development side, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined a major protocol redesign called “Lean Ethereum.” He described it as the third major version of Ethereum, comparable in scale to the Merge.

The plan will roll out over three to four years and covers verification, consensus, privacy, quantum safety, and client architecture. Buterin said verification will shift toward recursive STARKs. Consensus changes aim for one or two-round finality.

State changes are the most disruptive part. Buterin said a possible 2030 model could see Ethereum hold 2 TB of current dynamic state alongside 100 TB of new-style state. That new-style state would suit ERC20s and NFTs. A possible ERC20 rewrite using UTXO storage could cut transaction fees by more than 10 times.

ETH is currently trading at $1,780.

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