The issue of long-term Ether (ETH) investment is attracting modern attention as Ethereum continues to lead in the key areas of onchain and decentralized finance activity, even though the altcoin has lost 28% of its value this year. The network continues to host approximately $43 billion in DeFi liquidity, over $165 billion in stablecoins, and approximately 55% of tokenized assets tracked on public blockchains.
Data from Token Terminal as well can be seen that the market capitalization of tokenized ETFs exceeds $400 million and Ethereum has 76.9% of the market share.
Referring to the above data, cryptocurrency analyst Tanaka said:
“These are elements that I believe will continue to lead the market in the medium to long term. And if we look at current data, Ethereum continues to be the most important settlement layer for these narratives.”
Onchain share between different chains. Source: X
Ethereum staking activity is also taking place further grow despite a 28% price decline in 2026. Network data showed that staked ETH reached nearly 39.1 million coins, or about 32% of the total ETH supply, spread across more than 896,000 energetic validators.
Demand to enter the validator has also remained elevated, with over 3.49 million ETH waiting in the staking queue, resulting in a wait time of over 60 days, while output supply remains at a minimum of 7,424.
Ethereum validator queue. Source: Validator Queue
The long validator queue matters because it shows that enormous amounts of ETH are still going into staking despite weaker prices this year.
CryptoQuanta data in addition it also highlights the trend of aether accumulation. The inflow of ETH to accumulation addresses reached 248,400 ETH on May 20, which is the strongest single-day inflow since January 6. These wallets are often associated with long-term holders because they show circumscribed sales activity.
ETH affects accumulator addresses. Source: CryptoQuant
Related: Harvard Abandons Entire ETH Position After Just One Quarter
ETH analysts are observing a historic buying zone
Crypto Bullet Trader he said Ether’s weekly chart continues to show a multi-year accumulation range between $1,000 and $5,000. The analyst sees the last few years as a period in which buyers slowly built positions before a larger trend developed.
Crypto Bullet said ETH could still return to the $1,000 to $1,300 area, calling it a possible final surrender zone before the next cycle extension. The analyst also set long-term growth targets of $7,700-$14,000 for 2027-2029.
ETH/USD, weekly chart. Source: X
Onchain analyst Rei pointed to Ether’s stance on Alphactal’s two-year uncomplicated moving average multiplier model. The model compares the ETH price to the average of the last two years to identify periods when ETH was trading above or below average.
Ethereum recently dropped below the two-year SMA x1 band, which is the underlying average price of ETH over the past two years. Traders often view the x1 level as the fair value zone under normal market conditions.
Higher bands such as x1.42 and x2.65 have historically occurred during overheated bull phases when ETH is trading well above its long-term average.
The price is now approaching the lower 2Y SMA/2 band, marked in purple on the chart. Rei he said,
“History shows that ever As $ETH approaches or touches this zone (as in overdue 2022), the market typically establishes a highly reliable, cyclical “accumulation zone”.
Ethereum: 2-Year SMA Multiplier Indicator. Source: X
Related: Ether Buyer Volume Turns Negative for the First Time in Two Months: Will ETH Drop Below 2K Next? dollars?
