Ethereum reclaimed $2,600 on Friday after breaking above the $2,570 level identified by chart analyst Ali Martinez as a key resistance point. A strong four-hour close above that level, supported by trading volume, could expose $2,700 and potentially $3,000, although the technical setup remains conditional. Ethereum’s average transaction fee fell 87%, from $0.72 per transfer on April 21, 2026, to $0.095 on September 17. Santiment attributed the decline to softer mainnet demand during the bearish summer and expanded capacity from Fusaka, higher blob throughput, a 60 million gas limit and Layer 2 networks processing activity away from Ethereum’s mainnet. Lower costs make swaps, transfers, DeFi transactions, stablecoin activity and ERC-20 movements cheaper, but Santiment said falling fees alone do not confirm stronger demand. Exchange-held ETH has also declined to 6.06 million from 22.9 million in June 2020, as more tokens move into staking, ETFs, treasury holdings and long-term custody.