Ethereum Drops by 5% as Early Investors Move Holdings
Ethereum (ETH) dropped by more than 5.13% over 24 hours to $2,074.74 as early investors moved holdings to exchanges, countering recent Whale accumulation.
Hence, ETH underperforms a broader crypto market, primarily due to profit-taking by early whales. The move appears more consistent with specific selling pressure than a market-wide catalyst.
On-chain data shows that early Ethereum investors are moving their holdings to exchanges, signalling an intent to sell. For example, a 2-year-dormant whale deposited 15,000 ETH, worth about $30.97 million, into Coinbase. Crypto analysts said such often trigger bearish sentiment and follow-on selling.
Large, concentrated sell orders from entities with low cost bases can overwhelm buy-side liquidity, accelerating price declines. The sell-off occurred amid a down day for crypto, with the total market cap falling 2.62%.
Ethereum’s sharper drop suggests it led the weakness. Rising open interest alongside the price fall indicates new short positions or longs being liquidated, adding downward momentum.
ETH is not moving in isolation; bearish macro sentiment and leveraged positioning amplified the move. The technical structure shows ETH testing support near $2,050. If it holds, a bounce toward the pivot at $2,171 is possible.
A break below risks a swift move to the critical $2,000 level. The geopolitical catalyst of the U.S.-Iran negotiation window expiring on March 28 adds binary event risk. The trend is bearish below $2,171, but the market is probing for a stabilisation floor.
Meanwhile, Ethereum recently recorded about $308 million in whale buying as geopolitical tensions in West Asia start to cool.
AMBCrypto reports that on 25 March, Ethereum whales accumulated about 142,773 ETH, worth roughly $308 million, from exchanges including Binance, Bitget and Kraken, with BitMine alone adding 67,111 ETH for around $145 million in that window.
This activity came as news of a US peace plan and the reopening of shipping lanes signalled de-escalation in the US–Iran conflict, and ETH rose about 1.25% to near 2,160 dollars, while volume actually fell by over 30 per cent, suggesting a narrow, whale-driven move rather than broad retail participation.
ETH has outperformed equities since the Iran war began, and some institutional players frame it as a wartime store of value, which may explain why peace talks plus prior outperformance are drawing in large buyers at current levels.
The $308 million figure is concentrated, time-specific whale accumulation that may be as much a macro hedge adjustment as a pure ETH bet.
Separate analysis shows ETH is already in a supply-constrained state, with around 38 million ETH staked, roughly a third of total supply, and exchange balances at their lowest since 2016, according to on-chain data summarised by Cointelegraph.
BitMine now holds about 4.66 million ETH (around 3.86 per cent of circulating supply), much of it staked, and has been steadily buying in recent weeks, reinforcing this structural shortage.
When the liquid supply is this tight, even modest new demand from whales can move the price disproportionately, but it also means order books can thin out on the way down if sentiment flips, increasing volatility in both directions. CBN Reaffirms Oversight on Union Bank after Court Judgement
