Ethereum's Developer Activity Lags Behind Price Recovery

Ethereum's recent performance has been marked by a disconnect between its developer activity and on-chain growth, and its price in relation to Bitcoin. Despite reaching a record 9.1 million deployed contracts in Q4 2025, the Ethereum price corrected by 45%, marking its worst quarterly performance since the 2018 bear market.

However, this strong developer activity has translated into real network use, with NFT volume and DApp activity reaching impressive levels. The $12.6 million flowing through the Ethereum network and the 1,135% increase in weekly DApp activity are clear indicators of a resilient foundation for ETH.

The question remains whether Ethereum can repeat its Q2 gains against Bitcoin. However, with leverage-driven sentiment dominating on-chain metrics and little sign of spot accumulation, it seems unlikely that ETH will be able to close the gap with BTC. Instead, it may extend losses to BTC in Q2, reinforcing a bearish setup.