Buy the dip in ETH, or are there more dips to come? These metrics provide clues

Analysts say traders are rushing into Ethereum too early before a broader market panic fully develops.

Ethereum (ETH) fell below the $2,000 level for the first time in nearly two months, a situation that caused traders to return to “buy the dip” mode according to blockchain analytics firm Santiment.

However, Santiment pointed out that the sudden wave of optimism around ETH’s decline could be a warning sign in itself.

Crowd’s optimism hints at more downside

Santiment’s reasoning is that when a major token crosses a key psychological level, traders often split into two camps, with one group panicking and canceling the asset and the other accumulating even more because they believe they are getting a discount.

According to the company’s analysis, the second scenario is what is currently happening with Ethereum.

“Retail trading has erupted with ‘buy the dip’ calls towards $ETH,” he wrote on

Indeed, in Santiment’s assessment, retailers tend to err and become overly optimistic, and anyone who buys before panic fully sets in will do so before the actual bottom arrives.

As such, the company advised to be patient, stating:

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“There will be an opportunity to buy Ethereum, but ideally you will want to wait until the majority cools down their FOMO and starts panicking. That way, you will buy while there is real blood in the streets.”

A market overview confirms this bearish backdrop, with ETH trading around $1,975 at the time of writing, representing a decline of almost 5% over the past 24 hours and almost 8% in the red over seven days.

The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency is also down about 14% from where it was 30 days ago and is about 60% below its all-time high recorded in August 2025, when it stopped just a few dollars shy of $5,000.

Data from CoinGlass shows that approximately $241 million in ETH positions were liquidated in the past day alone, with long positions accounting for the vast majority of that figure, around $228 million, compared to just $13 million for short positions.

These lopsided liquidation numbers reflect the number of traders caught out of the game betting on a recovery.

The success of the Ethereum network is not reflected in ETH prices

All of the above comes at a time when the debate over the future of Ethereum is reaching a fever pitch, with Bankless co-founder David Hoffman declaring that he has sold his ETH stash.

He said that while Ethereum has been successful as a network, it is not clear whether ETH itself is yet on track towards a major long-term revaluation.

According to him, Ethereum has become more beneficial to stablecoins, tokenized assets and decentralized applications at the expense of its own native token, calling the network a “giver, not a taker”.