ethereum remained jittery over the weekend as its exchange-traded funds saw large outflows, exchange balances rose, and staking yields fell.
ethereum (eth) was trading at $3,268, down from last month's high of $4,104. This price action mirrors that of bitcoin (btc), which has retreated from an all-time high of $108,000 to below $95,000.
Ether has pulled back as data shows demand for its ETFs on Wall Street has fallen in recent days. According <a target="_blank" href="https://sosovalue.com/assets/etf/us-eth-spot” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>SoSoValueAll ethereum funds lost $68 million in assets on Friday after losing $159.3 million on Thursday. They lost $86 million in assets on Wednesday.
These funds now have over $11.61 billion in assets, representing 2.96% of ethereum's market capitalization. By contrast, bitcoin ETFs have $107 billion in assets, or 5.2% of their market cap.
Meanwhile, according to CoinGlass, ethereum balances on centralized exchanges have increased this year. There are now 15.8 million eth coins on exchanges, up from 15.30 million on December 30.
Higher exchange balances are a sign that investors are moving their tokens from their wallets to CEX platforms. Transferring cryptocurrencies to exchanges is usually the first step in selling them.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2732" height="768" src="https://crypto.news/app/uploads/2025/01/ethereum-Balances.jpeg” alt=”ethereum balances on CEX exchanges”/>
More data shows that ethereum futures open interest has fallen from its December high of $31.1 billion, a sign of falling demand. Over the past five days, its daily open interest has remained at $28.4 billion, down from December's high of $31.1 billion.
On the positive side, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies often rally when open interest falls. For example, the price of eth began its recent rally in November when interest fell to $14 billion.
Meanwhile, ethereum participants are generating lower returns. According Gambling Rewardseth has a staking reward rate of 3.10%, much lower than Solana's (SOL)'s 7% and Tron's (TRX's) 4.52%. ethereum staking rewards often drop when more tokens are delegated to staking pools and when fees drop. As shown below, ethereum fees have been on a downward trajectory in recent weeks.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="2473" height="863" src="https://crypto.news/app/uploads/2025/01/ethereum-Fees.jpeg” alt=”ethereum fees”/>
ethereum Price Chart Analysis
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="3574" height="1982" src="https://crypto.news/app/uploads/2025/01/ethereum-price-1.png” alt=”eth price chart”/>
The daily chart shows that eth price reached a high of $4,104 in December, forming a double top pattern with a neckline of $3,520.
It has fallen below the 50-day moving average at $3,415 and found substantial support at the 100-day moving average. ethereum also found support at the ascending trend line connecting the lowest levels since November 15.
There are signs that the coin has formed a head and shoulders pattern, a popular bearish sign. Therefore, a drop below the 100-day moving average and the ascending trend line will indicate a bearish breakout, potentially to $2,820, the highest level since August last year.
