According to a recent report by banking giant JPMorgan, Ethereum continues to suffer from low investor interest even after the most recent Pectra upgrade.
The upgrades did result in an Ethereum price rally, but they failed to actually bring substantially more users to the network.
In its recent report, JPMorgan has noted that the average user remains disinterested in Ethereum despite more enthusiasm from institutional players.
On the bright side, CME Group’s regulated Ethereum futures are seeing growing institutional participation based on the increasing open interest (OI), which represents the total number of active positions. However, Ethereum’s spot ETF inflows remain extremely underwhelming in the U.S.
Everyday usage stays flat
JPMorgan has also pointed to the fact that Ethereum’s on-chain activity remains practically flat despite the promising upgrade.
Ethereum has seen little growth on the decentralized finance (DeFi) front, with total value locked (TVL) remaining underwhelming in terms of USD.
Supply inflation concerns
On top of that, Ethereum has suffered from plunging fees. Even though it can be interpreted as a positive development, the collapsing fees are a sign of low transactions and, subsequently, low demand. Layer-2 networks such as Arbitrum keep chipping away at the network usage of the main layer.
Ethereum’s supply is increasing due to the upgrade, which has caused another drop in ETH’s burn rate. This means that Ethereum is becoming inflationary again, which undermines the “ultrasound money” narrative.
