The cryptocurrency market recently suffered a significant drop due to rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, with several large-cap assets losing their newly accumulated gains over the past week. Specifically, ethereum price plummeted from over $2,600 to as low as $2,300 at some point during the week.
This represents a new setback for the “king of altcoins”, which has not had a particularly positive performance in recent months. Interestingly, a popular crypto expert on x presented an on-chain observation on ethereum investor behavior over the last quarter.
How ethereum whales reducing their holdings will affect the price
In a recent post on social media platform x.com/ali_charts/status/1842673114414547438″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>revealed that a particular group of ethereum whales have been trimming their holdings in recent months. This on-chain disclosure is based on Mega-Whale's address count, which tracks the number of addresses containing 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 often pay close attention to the movements of whales, as these large entities tend to exert a notable influence on market liquidity and prices due to their significant holdings.
<img decoding="async" class="aligncenter" src="https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Number-of-Ethereum-whales-holding-10000-ETH-decreased-by-7.jpeg" alt="ethereum” width=”1199″ height=”675″/>
Source: Ali_charts/x
According to Martínez, the number of whale addresses holding more than 10,000 eth has fallen by more than 7% since July 2024. This decrease in the population of large ethereum holders points to some redistribution or profit taking and suggests a notable change. in market sentiment. especially among large-scale investors and institutional players.
Interestingly, this reduction in whale addresses coincided with a period when the price of ethereum struggled. Despite the approval and launch of spot eth exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the price of the altcoin fell from over $3,500 in July to as low as $2,200 in August.
As already seen in the token's price action in recent months, the decline of large ethereum holders could decrease large-scale buying pressure, leading to slow price movement. Furthermore, sustained profit-taking activities by these whales could enhance downward pressure on the price of eth.
eth price at a glance
At the time of writing, ethereum price sits just above the 2,400 mark, reflecting a negligible 0.1% decline over the past 24 hours. The performance of the cryptocurrency in the weekly period is not so insignificant as the price of eth is down almost 10% in the last seven days.
The price of eth rebounds from $2,300 on the daily timeframe | Source: ETHUSDT chart on x/HrpiwM8Q/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">TradingView
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
