Ether bears are getting louder as the price remains rangebound.
Key takeaways:
Ether bears are getting louder as the price remains rangebound.
Declining spot volume signals weak demand and increasing ETH price vulnerability.
ETH price could drop to $3,500 if key support levels are lost.
Ether (ETH) has remained stuck in the $4,200-$4,500 range for two weeks, amid decreasing spot and institutional demand. This has made some traders bearish, eyeing ETH price falling to $3,500 before any potential recovery.
Market sentiment turns negative
The choppiness in Ether’s price, coupled with Bitcoin’s recent drop below $109,000, saw a shift in market sentiment as “sell calls” intensified, according to Santiment.
“Traders have changed their tunes, swinging more and more negatively with expectations of Bitcoin falling back below $100K, Ethereum back below $3.5K,” the market intelligence firm said in an X post on Tuesday.
Related: Ethereum validator exit queue to spike as Kiln moves tokens
An accompanying chart shows a surge in keywords like “selling” and “bearish” since late August, when Ether hit its $4,950 all-time high.
However, markets often move opposite the crowd’s expectations, which could actually be “signalling an ideal buy time,” Santiment writes.
Ethereum traders step back
Ether’s spot demand remains subdued over two weeks, with ETH trading volume falling to $2.6 billion on Sept. 8 from $18.5 billion on Aug. 22, an 85% decrease, Glassnode data shows.
The decline in spot volume signals waning investor participation, reflecting weaker conviction among traders.
While spot Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD), the net difference between buying and selling trade volumes for ETH, has improved slightly, as selling pressure eased. However, it is still way below the levels seen in late August.
Low spot volume and negative spot volume delta indicate weak ETH demand, increasing price vulnerability. However, the bulls could regain their footing if the CVD stabilizes.
As Cointelegraph reported, institutional investors have taken a step back, with spot Ethereum ETFs recording over $1.04 billion in net outflows across six consecutive trading days, adding to the sell-side pressure.
How low can ETH price go?
ETH price is currently retesting the lower trendline of a symmetrical triangle at $4,280 in the daily time frame, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows.
A daily candlestick close below the triangle could attract more bears that will look to push the price down to $3,600, or down 16% from the current level.
MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe says that ETH price could drop toward the $3,500-$3,800 demand zone before recovering.
“One leg down for $ETH, tapping the green zone and up only from there. That would be my ideal scenario.”
Fellow analyst Ted Pillows spotted large liquidity clusters sitting between $3,600 and $4,000 and said that Ether may first drop to collect this liquidity, before a reversal.
“It looks like a sweep of lower liquidity could happen before reversal.”
$ETH has decent liquidity clusters around the $3,600-$4,000 level.
— Ted (@TedPillows) September 9, 2025
Ethereum price action is also looking weak due to macro uncertainty and weak ETF demand.
It looks like a sweep of lower liquidity could happen before reversal. pic.twitter.com/9Md1S5kP77
As Cointelegraph reported, another potential area to watch for a rebound is $3,745 if the support at $4,000 is lost.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
