Ethereum (ETH) whales are in decline and HODLers are buying their ETH from exchanges. As the Ethereum price hits new peaks, the whales are dumping and the remaining HODLers are pulling their crypto from exchanges, possibly to earn returns from offline wallets or decentralized finance protocols.
According to blockchain analytics by Glassnode, about $ 560 million worth of Ethereum was withdrawn on exchanges yesterday. This means that the amount of ETH held by crypto exchanges has dropped to a 19-month low.
📊 Daily On-Chain Exchange Flow#Bitcoin $BTC
➡️ $1.6B in
⬅️ $1.5B out
📈 Net flow: +$83.7M#Ethereum $ETH
➡️ $926.3M in
⬅️ $1.5B out
📉 Net flow: -$560.7M#Tether (ERC20) $USDT
➡️ $660.0M in
⬅️ $740.0M out
📉 Net flow: -$80.1Mhttps://t.co/dk2HbGwhVw— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) April 4, 2021
Consequently, 14.7 million ETH remained on crypto exchanges; equivalent to thirty billion dollars, or 12.8% of the total supply of Ethereum. Such low levels were last seen in August 2019. At that time, ETH was worth $ 220, around one tenth of its current price.
📉 #Ethereum $ETH Balance on Exchanges just reached a 19-month low of 14,787,797.350 ETH
View metric:https://t.co/1dCpD2ey8E pic.twitter.com/SKSTlNbzTn
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) April 3, 2021
What’s more, whales, large assets that hold large numbers of Ethereum, are declining at all levels. According to Glassnode, the number of wallets holding more than 1,000 coins ($ 2,057,784) hit a three-year low over the weekend; The number holding more than 100 cryptocurrencies ($ 205,784) dropped to a twenty-month low, and it’s a similar story for entities controlling more than 10 cryptocurrencies ($ 20,587) or 32 tokens ($ 65,851).
What’s going on?
All of this means that Ethereum whales can sell their assets, move ETH to cold storage, or stake their ETH on DeFi protocols.
📉 #Ethereum $ETH Number of Addresses Holding 1k+ Coins just reached a 3-year low of 6,523
View metric:https://t.co/iDNXAbbLRt pic.twitter.com/Wk3InmOLGx
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) April 3, 2021
Putting crypto into cold wallets means taking one’s crypto from exchanges or online wallets and placing them in offline wallets that are stored on memory sticks or hard drives. This more laborious ETH to trade reduces the amount of Ethereum traders can easily move and theoretically increases the demand for Ethereum.
📉 #Ethereum $ETH Number of Addresses Holding 100+ Coins just reached a 20-month low of 45,349
Previous 20-month low of 45,355 was observed on 02 April 2021
View metric:https://t.co/FbjiMG3uFX pic.twitter.com/As9dUR6da7
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) April 3, 2021
Another possibility is that whales send their ETH to highly efficient decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Such DeFi protocols often attract investors, namely farming, who use DeFi protocols to gain profitable returns on their assets.
So… Is it a good thing? Bad thing?
Signals can be detected in either direction for ETH.
If the whales are moving to cold storage, reducing the supply of Ethereum in circulation on exchanges is only good for Ethereum, a coin currently in hot demand. If they’re transferring funds to DeFi, that’s… good for DeFi.
On the other hand, the decline in the number of whales may indicate that they are selling their ETH because they think the price is near the peak and is falling from there.
The only thing beyond reasonable doubt is that Ethereum is in an exciting place right now. It broke a new record with $ 2,152 in the early hours of April 3. Although it is currently trading just under $ 2,045, it is still trading above $ 2,000, suggesting that traders are not hesitating on the new price tag. It has also been a great time for Ethereum miners: They had a record total revenue of $ 1.38 billion last month.
The only conclusion where all the data is unanimous is that Ethereum is not going anywhere in a hurry.