The crypto market recently suffered a significant downturn due to the escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, with several large-cap assets shedding their recently-accrued gains over the past week. Specifically, the price of Ethereum crashed from above $2,600 to as low as $2,300 at some point during the week.

This represents a fresh setback for the “king of altcoins,” which has not had a particularly positive performance in the past few months. Interestingly, a popular crypto pundit on X has come forward with an on-chain observation into the behavior of Ethereum investors over the last quarter.

How Ethereum Whales Shaving Off Their Holdings Will Impact Price

In a recent post on the social media platform X, crypto analyst Ali Martinez revealed that a particular group of Ethereum whales has been shaving their holdings over the past few months. This on-chain revelation is based on the Mega-Whale Address Count, which tracks the number of addresses holding more than 10,000 units of a particular cryptocurrency.

Whales refer to entities (individuals and organizations) that own significant amounts of a specific cryptocurrency (Ether, in this case). Investors usually pay extra attention to whale movements, as these large entities tend to wield notable influence on market liquidity and prices due to their substantial holdings. 

Source: Ali_charts/X

According to Martinez, the number of whale addresses holding over 10,000 ETH has fallen by more than 7% since July 2024. This decline in the population of large Ethereum holders points to some redistribution or profit-taking and suggests a notable shift in market sentiment, especially among large-scale investors and institutional players.

Interestingly, this reduction in whale addresses coincided with a period where the Ethereum price struggled. Despite the approval and launch of spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the altcoin’s price fell from above $3,500 in July to as low as $2,200 by August.

As already seen in the token’s price action over the last few months, the decrease in large Ethereum holders could diminish buying pressure on a grand scale, leading to sluggish price movement. Moreover, sustained profit-taking activities by these whales could potentiate downward pressure on the ETH price.

ETH Price At A Glance

As of this writing, the price of Ethereum sits just above the 2,400 mark, reflecting an insignificant 0.1% decrease in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency’s performance on the weekly timeframe is not so insignificant, as the ETH price is down by nearly 10% in the past seven days.

The price of ETH rebounds from $2,300 on the daily timeframe | Source: ETHUSDT chart on TradingView

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Ethereum (ETH) has seen a 10.3% drop from last week’s highs following the recent market downturn. Its performance has worried many analysts and investors, considering ETH could be near another correction.

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Ethereum Whales Send Millions To Exchanges

Ethereum has struggled to reclaim some key resistance levels since the October 1 correction. On Tuesday, the cryptocurrency saw its price nosedive from the $2,600 zone to the $2,300 mark, hovering between the lower and higher range of that support level for the past few days.

Since then, news of multiple investors moving their tokens has hit the industry, alarming the community. On-chain analytics firm Lookonchain revealed that an Ethereum Initial Coin Offering (ICO) participant sold their tokens as the market bleed.

Per the report, the whale deposited 12,010 ETH, worth $31.6 million, to Kraken a week ago after being inactive for two years. The same address sold another 19,000 ETH two days ago, around $47.54 million.

Today, crypto analyst Ali Martinez highlighted that on October 3, roughly $259.2 million worth of ETH had been sent to crypto exchanges. According to the CryptoQuant data shared by Martinez, 108,000 ETH were sent to exchanges in the last 24 hours, significantly increasing from the day before.

The news continued to fuel the bearish sentiment among many community members, who are disappointed about Ethereum’s performance and fear ETH’s price could soon face significant selling pressure.

Will ETH Revisit Lower Levels Soon?

Crypto investor Ted Pillows noted that ETH has been “one of the most underperforming cryptos in 2024.” Despite the approval of Ethereum spot ETFs (exchange-traded funds), the crypto has “underperformed almost every large cap.”

He also pointed out that ETH surged alongside Bitcoin whenever the market was up but dropped significantly harder when the market struggled. “Whenever BTC has pumped 5%, ETH has pumped 3%, but whenever BTC has dumped 5%, ETH has dumped 12%-15%,” he remarked.

However, Ted explained that every time Ethereum was considered “dead,” like in 2020-2021, it has eventually outperformed BTC. Based on this, the investor believes that ‘the king of Altcoins’ could face “one last flush” to $2,200 before the reversal.

Similarly, trader Crypto General suggested that the cryptocurrency could retest the $4,000 by next month as he expects ETH to bounce from the current levels. However, he asserted that if the price breaks the trendline, “we can easily see the price touching the $2100 level.”

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Other market watchers pointed out that Ethereum must reclaim the $2,400 resistance level to see a potential bounce toward $2,800. Previously, Daan Crypto Trades set the $2,850 resistance level as one of the key levels to watch.

The analyst considers that reclaiming this level would signal a trend reversal for the cryptocurrency. This zone corresponds with the horizontal level that started the February-March run to ETH’s yearly high of $4,090.

As of this writing, ETH has seen a positive price jump, currently trading at $2,431. This performance represents a 4.3% surge in the daily timeframe.

Featured Image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com