Although Ethereum is the backbone of the fast-growing decentralised financial ecosystem, the crypto currency has performed significantly worse than Bitcoin in recent weeks.

This so-called underperformance is due to the fact that its price remains below the highs of 2020, while BTC is traded at its highest level after its parabolic uptrend in 2017.

Although the price development was not obviously bullish, ETH remains incredibly strong from a chain internal and fundamental perspective.

The transition to ETH 2.0 is already underway – users are sending tens of thousands of tokens into the staking contract – and the network is used in high volumes due to the resurgent de fi trend.

Probably one of the most bullish on-chain metrics is the small amount of Ethereum held on the exchanges – it has just reached its lowest level since 2018.

This metric at a multi-year low indicates that the selling pressure to which the crypto currency may be exposed is limited for the time being.

Ethereum consolidates below the highs of 2020, but the outlook remains good
At the time of writing, Ethereum trades over 3 percent higher at a current price of $465, which is about the same price at which it has been traded in recent days.

ETH is still below the highs of just under 500 dollars in 2020, which were reached a few months ago during the peak phase of the DeFi mania.

Ethereum, however, is well above the lows of around $310, which were set after the mania subsided and the broader market retreated.

The rise in prices has been surprisingly slowed recently, despite the imminent release of the 2.0 network upgrade, which is widely seen as a bullish catalyst.

ETH balance on crypto stock exchanges at multi-year low
One on-chain metric that works in favour of the bulls is that the amount of ethereum on the stock markets has not been so low since 2018.

Analysis firm Santiment writes about this in an article and explains that only 13.35 percent of the total ETH supply is held on stock exchanges.

„The percentage of the total ETH offering currently held on stock exchanges (13.35%) has not been as low since 23 November 2018. This milestone, almost two years ago to the day, is a positive sign for the owners of #Ethereum, who have benefited in the past from keeping the supply of stock exchanges low. It suggests that the likelihood of a sell-off of large whales will remain limited…“.

Data source: Santiment
Combine this trend with the tailwind that Bitcoin is giving the market and, at the same time, take into account the resurgent popularity of DeFi, it seems that E