Ethereum (ETH) is currently under significant selling pressure from influential market participants such as whales and institutions. This trend suggests a potential major price decline. On September 7, 2024, the entire cryptocurrency market, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), experienced a notable price drop leading to continuous sell-offs by major holders.
Whales and Institutions Offload $141M of Ethereum
In the last 24 hours alone, over 63,538 ETH, worth approximately $141.7 million, has been sold on centralized exchanges including Binance and Kraken, according to on-chain analytics firm data. Specifically, during the Asian market hours, institutions like Wintermute and Metalpha offloaded a massive 46,947 ETH and 8,088.8 ETH, valued at $104.74 million and $18.05 million respectively.
Additionally, prominent whale wallet addresses such as “0xa531,” “0xce9,” and James Fickel, the founder of the Amaranth Foundation, have also dumped significant amounts of ETH. These addresses sold 2,500 ETH, 3,003 ETH, and 3,000 ETH, worth $5.56 million, $6.7 million, and $6.64 million respectively, before the U.S. stock market opened.
James Fickel, the founder of the Amaranth Foundation, recently sold another 3,000 ETH ($6.64 million) for 124.04 WBTC at average prices of $2,213 for ETH and $53,504 for WBTC. This sale was made within the past 18 hours to repay his loan on AAVE.
This significant sell-off by whales and institutions is likely to increase selling pressure and could potentially trigger even larger sell-offs in the market.
Ethereum Price Prediction
Expert technical analysis indicates that ETH is currently bearish, hovering near a crucial support level of $2,230. Since January 2024, ETH has tested this level six times, each time resulting in a price reversal. However, with the current bearish market sentiment and continuous ETH sell-offs, it is essential for ETH to maintain above the $2,130 level.
If ETH fails to hold this support level, there is a high possibility it could decline nearly 30% to the $1,500 mark. Despite the bearish outlook, ETH’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) has formed a bullish divergence on a daily time frame, indicating a potential trend reversal from a downtrend to an uptrend. This reversal, however, is likely to occur only if ETH remains above the crucial support level.
Key Liquidation Areas
Currently, the major liquidation levels are near the $2,245 level on the lower side and $2,311 on the upper side, as traders are over-leveraged at these levels, according to CoinGlass data. If the market experiences further selling pressure and Ether’s price drops to the $2,245 level, approximately $275 million worth of long positions will be liquidated. Conversely, if the sentiment shifts to the bullish side and the price rises to the $2,311 level, around $170 million worth of short positions will be liquidated.
At the time of writing, ETH is trading near the $2,285 level, having experienced a price drop of over 2% in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, its trading volume has increased by 30% during the same period, indicating higher participation from traders amid the market sell-off.
