Ethereum Price Forecast – Will Ether Hit $2,500 or Drop to $1,500 Short-Term?

Highlights:

• Ethereum price is range-bound but has failed at resistance intra-day
• Failure at resistance could see Ethereum drop to $1500
• Rebound back through resistance could trigger a rally to $2500

Ethereum is showing no major price movements today, mirroring the lack of action across the market. At the time of going to press, Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $2,033.93, a 1.72% decrease on the day. However, trading activity is increasing, with volumes rising by 15.59% to $12.71 billion. Such a volume spike indicates trader expectations of a significant price change are growing.

The price of Ethereum is recovering and has regained the $2,000 support level. However, it is still 18% below the $2,500 price cap reached three weeks ago. Additionally, Ethereum has underperformed relative to altcoins in the past month by 14%, which has raised concerns with traders about Ethereum’s chances of gaining a bullish outlook soon. If it displays weakness, the price could drop below $2000 in the short term. However, some factors could trigger an Ethereum rally to prices above $2500. 

Institutional Demand and Pectra Upgrade Could Trigger Ethereum Price Rally

Even though the price has recently leveled off, Ethereum is optimally placed to capture institutional interest. This is especially true with the upcoming Pectra network upgrade, which is set to take place between late April and early June. This upgrade will solve several persistent issues like network fees and scalability.

Notably, the data capacity per block will be increased, lowering the cost of rollups and privacy-enhancing solutions. The upgrade will also allow gas fee sponsorship via smart accounts, making passkey authentication and batch transactions possible.

Some Ethereum copium:

– Testnet (Hoodi) goes live tomorrow, March 26, 2025.
– Pectra upgrade Mainnet expected mid-June 2025 if testing goes smoothly.

Price usually reacts positively weeks or months after an upgrade. pic.twitter.com/ABWNlHDWeF

— Jack Green (@JackGreenCrypto) March 25, 2025

Ethereum Growing DeFi and TVL Dominance Points to Rising Demand

Ethereum remains the strongest player in decentralized finance (DeFi), with a total value locked (TVL) of $52.5 billion, while Solana is at $7 billion. Ethereum deposits have increased by 10% in the last 30 days, bringing the figure to 25.4 million ETH, while Solana has suffered an 8% reduction.

In a positive development, some protocols like Sky (previously Maker) and Ethena also attained TVL growth of 17% and 38%, respectively, adding to their Ethereum mantle. It could signal that confidence in Ethereum is on the rise. 

ethereum owns DeFi
it has over 50% of all TVL.

ethereum owns stablecoins
it has over 50% of the supply.

ethereum will own RWAs
they’ll tokenize where DeFi and stablecoins are.

it’s that simple.

turns out, ethereum is also the most neutral, decentralized, open, permissionless,… pic.twitter.com/uu1gaeOEbU

— rip.eth (@ripdoteth) March 26, 2025

Low Exchange Balances May Trigger Supply Shock and Push Price Higher

According to on-chain analytics data, big Ethereum holders are withdrawing their Ether from exchanges, indicating a long-term commitment to the network. Ethereum’s supply on exchanges reached 16.9 million ETH on March 25, an increase of only 3.5 percent from its five-year low of 16.32 million ETH.

ETH’s adoption in the Real World Asset (RWA) sector further fuels this trend. The ecosystem surpassed 80 percent market share, driven by BlackRock’s BUILD fund, which has recently crossed $1.5 billion in capitalization.

While some vocal players like Bitmex’s Arthur Hayes see Ethereum hitting $5000 soon, options traders are less enthusiastic. The price for the Ethereum call option set at 5,000 for SEP 26 implies Ethereum traders do not expect ETH to reach that price in due time.

Analysts Point to Ethereum’s Bearish Technical Indicators

Besides options traders, some analysts point to Ethereum technical indicators as increasingly bearish. Ethereum is in danger of a negative technical threat as it’s hovering close to the lower limit of its quarterly Bollinger Bands.

Crypto Analyst Tony “The Bull” Severino commented on Ethereum, stating it only has 7 days left until it breaks a critical support level, warning that ETH needs to avoid closing below this mark. Failure to do so may expose Ethereum to aggressively negative volatility. Such could push its price to dangerously low levels under $2,000. That includes a possible drop to $1,500. 

Ethereum tries some upside only to be killed in the next 1/2 days

Sadly the entire rise in the last 15 days now fully resembles a bear flag

Which is among the worst structures possible

All charts are the same, brace for some more weakness $ETH pic.twitter.com/usJ4NNeIeK

— TheGhost (@i9theghost5) March 26, 2025

Technical Analysis – Ethereum Price Trending Lower After Failing at Resistance

Ethereum is in the red intra-day after failing at the $2032.8 resistance. If bears sustain this momentum, the key level to watch for Ethereum will be the $1994.0 support. 

A crash through this support could see the Ethereum price drop to $1500 in the short term. On the other hand, if there is a rebound, the bulls will breach the $2032.8 resistance, then a rally to $2500 could follow. 

Recap

Ethereum’s price action remains ambiguous as the asset trades at a critical technical support level. Although there are positive fundamentals, short-term technical headwinds could add further downside pressure.