The price of Ethereum has fallen over 52% from its peak of $4,107 in December 2024, with current data indicating that ETH is down 42% since the beginning of 2025.
Even though it stands as one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap and leads in the realms of Web3 and DeFi, many experts foresee challenging price prospects for ETH in the near term.
Crypto analyst and market technician Askel Kibar cautioned investors against the assumption that ETH is undervalued simply because of the distance from its average trading price.
On social media, Kibar noted that “bottom reversals take time,” emphasizing that “all that supply needs to be accumulated.”
ETH/USD daily chart.
Referring to the above chart, Kibar stated,
“For those of you wishing to see ETH perform better than BTC, you need to witness price action similar to the 2018-2020 timeframe. After an extended downtrend, the price formed a double bottom in late 2019, leading to a more significant head and shoulders bottom reversal.”
At present, ETH’s chart does not indicate any bottoming pattern, prompting Kibar to liken trading Ethereum to “catching a falling knife.”
Standard Chartered reduces 2025 ETH price forecast to $4,000
Standard Chartered added to the bleak outlook in a letter to clients dated March 17, slashing its end-of-2025 ETH price prediction from $10,000 to $4,000, a notable 60% cut.
Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s head of Digital Assets Research, mentioned, “We expect ETH to continue its structural decline.” He added:
“Layer 2 blockchains were supposed to enhance ETH scalability, but we estimate that Base (a key layer 2) has stripped away USD 50bn from ETH’s market cap.”
Kendrick pointed to lower ETH fees, a “higher net issuance,” and layer 2 blockchains “capturing Ethereum’s GDP” as unexpected outcomes of the recent Dencun upgrade.
He further explained that Base, a layer 2 solution developed to tackle Ethereum’s scalability issues, is directing all profits (fees minus data recording costs) to Coinbase, its corporate owner.
Related: Long-term Ethereum accumulation could reverse if ETH price dips below $1.9K — Analyst
Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck, along with Senior Analyst Patrick Bush, share the pessimistic ETH price outlook expressed by other analysts. In a March 5 communication to investors, the researchers attributed ETH’s decline to “a significant erosion of the core factors that once made Ethereum valuable.”
The analysts reiterated claims that layer 2 solutions like Arbitrum and Base are contributing to a decline in ETH’s fee revenue, alongside the rising trend of memecoin trading on the Solana blockchain.
This article does not provide investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading decision carries risk, and readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before making any choices.