ETH stalls under $1,800 as Robinhood Chain inflows meet

Ether gained 3% between Thursday and Friday but failed to break above $1,800, keeping that level as near-term resistance and a potential $1,700 retest in play. Robinhood Chain’s early bridge inflows and tokenization momentum are colliding with weaker onchain activity and a sharp drop in perpetual funding.

Key Takeaways

Ether gained 3% from Thursday to Friday but could not clear $1,800, leaving the level as near-term resistance with $1,700 back on traders’ radar.
Robinhood Chain uses ETH as its gas token and showed $106 million in net bridge deposits at the time referenced.
Ethereum held a 47% share of the real-world asset tokenization market, per Rwa.xyz.
ETH perpetual futures annualized funding fell to 3% on Saturday, below a cited 6% neutral threshold and down from 12% levels seen Friday.

ETH’s $1,800 Test: 3% Pop Meets a Hard Ceiling

ETH’s 3% bounce from Thursday to Friday ran straight into $1,800 and stopped. That matters because the market has now treated $1,800 as a supply zone rather than a momentum trigger, with price unable to convert the level into support.

With the rejection in place, the near-term map tightens. A clean break and hold above $1,800 would signal follow-through demand. Another failure keeps the conversation anchored around whether spot demand is real or whether the move was a one-off bounce that leaves $1,700 as the next obvious liquidity test.

Tokenization Tailwinds and Robinhood Chain’s Early ETH Demand

Two demand narratives are doing the heavy lifting for ETH sentiment: tokenization scale on Ethereum and the early traction of Robinhood Chain.

Robinhood Chain is an Ethereum layer-2 network, meaning it processes transactions off the base layer and settles back to Ethereum. It uses ETH as its native gas token, creating a direct channel where incremental activity can translate into incremental ETH demand. At the time referenced, the chain had $106 million in net bridge deposits, with bridge deposits functioning as a proxy for capital moving into that ecosystem.

On tokenization, Rwa.xyz data put Ethereum at a 47% share of the RWA tokenization market. Robinhood also offers tokenized stocks to customers in 120 countries, reinforcing the EVM-compatible rails that keep issuance and liquidity gravitating toward Ethereum tooling.

Leon Waidmann, head of research at Lisk, pointed to a relative valuation anomaly: Ethereum TVL at $260 billion versus ETH market cap at $210 billion. He called the gap a distortion and said, “ETH is underpriced,” arguing the relative valuation is lower than in the 2022 bear market.

Onchain Activity Cools: Revenue and Active Addresses Slide

The usage side is not confirming the narrative. DefiLlama data showed Ethereum DApps generated $11 million in weekly revenue, down from $20 million in the first quarter of 2026. Active addresses fell to 3.2 million from 5.4 million over the same comparison window.

That softening matters because tokenization headlines can support the story, but sustained upside usually needs broad-based activity to keep fee generation and user counts from bleeding. In this setup, tokenization has scale, but the price response can stay capped if the network’s day-to-day demand continues to cool.

Derivatives are also pulling back. Laevitas data showed ETH perpetual futures annualized funding dropped to 3% on Saturday, below a cited 6% neutral threshold, after 12% levels seen Friday. Traders are no longer paying up for long leverage into $1,800, which is consistent with a market leaning cautious at resistance.

Institutional-style accumulation is the counterweight. Arkham Intelligence flagged a 20,500 ETH withdrawal worth $36 million from Galaxy Digital to a new wallet, described as matching a pattern seen in prior BitMine Immersion purchases. The attribution is not proven onchain, but BitMine’s stated pace is large: 198,370 ETH added over 30 days, alongside a description of $10.3 billion in reserves. Flows like that can underpin dips even if they do not guarantee a breakout.

Levels and Data Points That Decide $1,800 Breakout vs $1,700 Retest

The threshold that matters is still $1,800. Repeated rejections keep it as overhead supply, while a break and hold would force the market to reprice the “stalled bounce” framing.

If ETH revisits $1,700, the real test is whether spot activity and flows stabilize or accelerate into the move, rather than thinning out. On the catalyst side, Robinhood Chain’s net bridge deposits need to keep building beyond the cited $106 million level to stay a measurable demand channel instead of a launch-week spike.

In leverage, funding is the tell. A move back above the cited 6% neutral threshold would suggest traders are again willing to pay for long exposure. Staying near 3% after the prior 12% reading keeps the rally unconfirmed.

Marcus Hale’s Take: Mixed Demand Signals Keep ETH Range-Bound Until Leverage and Usage Re-Accelerate

I treat this as a classic “good narrative, mixed tape” setup. Robinhood Chain using ETH for gas plus $106 million in net bridge deposits is real, measurable demand, and Ethereum’s 47% RWA share shows tokenization is not just talk. But the market is still refusing to pay up through $1,800, and the funding collapse from 12% to 3% says leverage is stepping back right where it would need to press.

The threshold that matters is whether ETH can reclaim $1,800 with funding back above the 6% neutral line while onchain revenue and active addresses stop sliding. If that combination holds, the setup starts to look structural rather than narrative-driven, and $1,800 shifts from ceiling to base in practical terms.

ETH stalls under $1,800 as Robinhood Chain inflows meet cooling funding