Is Ethereum at risk as $3B in leverage builds before the FOMC?

The market is cooling off after tagging weekly highs.

On the daily timeframe, most top caps are pulling back. That said, this comes after a strong early-week rally, during which many assets reclaimed key levels for the first time in nearly eight weeks of sideways action.

In that context, the “dip” appears more like a reset than a genuine weakness.

Ethereum [ETH] is no exception. From a technical lens, ETH is down 3% from its weekly high of $3.4k. Still, it’s up 7% from the open, showing that the broader weekly structure remains intact despite the pullback.

But is it too soon to call this a “healthy” reset?

On the derivatives side, speculative liquidity has been piling up, with nearly $3 billion added to ETH’s Open Interest (OI) this week alone. Meanwhile, on Binance, the ETH/USDT perp contract has averaged a 60% long skew.

Put together with Ethereum’s price action, there’s a clear tension between technical strength and speculative bets. Now, macro volatility comes into play, with the next FOMC meeting less than two weeks away. 

Given this setup, is ETH’s 3% pullback just a dip, or the start of an unwind?

Ethereum’s conviction tested as macro risks loom

In the current market, sitting on the sidelines makes sense.

However, Ethereum is standing out. Glassnode shows a spike in activity retention for the “New” cohort, meaning first-time interacting addresses are surging. Moreover, new wallets hit an all-time high of 393k.

Naturally, this raises the question: What’s attracting all these new wallets, especially amid ongoing market FUD and ETH’s technical divergences? Notably, the answer seems to lie in Ethereum’s solid network fundamentals.

As the chart shows, Ethereum’s daily transactions just hit a record high.

To put it in context, the network saw 2.8 million transactions on the 15th of January, a 55% jump from just a week ago. This is more than double the typical activity, highlighting rising engagement and strong confidence in the network.

Paired with the surge in wallets, ETH’s fundamentals are showing strength.

More transactions mean the network is actively used, while more wallets indicate fresh capital is entering the system. Together, this momentum acts as a support for price, giving Ethereum an edge even amid market FUD.

Final Thoughts

• Despite a 3% pullback from weekly highs, Ethereum remains up 7% from the open, supported by technical structure and rising speculative interest.
• Record daily transactions and a surge in new wallets highlight growing network activity and investor conviction, providing technical support amid market FUD.