Ethereum trades horizontally as institutional whales dump heavily on Coinbase
|- Ethereum institutional whales have been depositing huge piles of ETH on Coinbase.
- Ethereum products recorded $14.4 million in outflows last week following increased doubts surrounding spot ETH ETF approval.
- Ethereum could see a slight increase this week in an attempt to balance a previous market inefficiency.
Ethereum (ETH) sustained its weekend sideways movement on Monday following a quiet market. However, institutional whales have been depositing the largest altcoin to Coinbase as ETH products also recorded $14.4 million in outflows last week.
Also read: Ethereum declines briefly, JP Morgan sees a spot ETH ETF approval despite recent Wells notice
Daily digest market movers: Increased whale activity, outflows, hacker dump
Ethereum whales have been making large moves in the past 24 hours. Here are the key market movers for ETH:
- In a recent whale move on Monday, an eight-year-old Ethereum wallet moved 4,153 ETH worth $12.17 million to Coinbase, according to Spot On Chain. Considering that the whale bought 12,427 ETH from Poloniex at an average entry price of $11 eight years ago, they've seen nearly a 27,000% growth. The whale address currently holds 2,566 ETH and has a profit of about $28.5 million.
- A large institutional investor also dumped 30,807 ETH worth $91.19 million on Coinbase Institutional recently, according to Whale Alert. This was followed by three transactions where other whales deposited over 11,000 ETH to Coinbase Institutional. While these deposits may signify a potential sell-off, Coinbase Institutional also saw a few ETH whale withdrawals of more than 7,000 ETH each.
Read more: Ethereum needs a bullish trigger, Joseph Lubin blasts the SEC
- Following the continued low engagement of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) with applicants for ETH spot ETFs, Ethereum products saw outflows of $14.4 million last week, according to CoinShares. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas commented earlier that a spot ETH ETF may not happen until late 2025. He stated that the SEC would likely see a change in leadership that's more friendly to crypto if Trump wins the US Presidential election in November.
- Meanwhile, a hacker who stole 150,000 ETH by exploiting a vulnerability in Parity's (Polkadot's parent company) multisig wallet in 2017 appears to be laundering portions of the stolen funds again. According to Cyvers Alerts, the hacker moved $3,050 ETH worth $9 million to eXch crypto exchange through consolidated addresses. The hacker still retains 83,017 ETH—worth $246.6 million—of the stolen funds.
ETH technical analysis: Ethereum to increase slightly
Ethereum traded fairly sideways over the weekend after posting a liquidity void on Friday. As traditional markets open on Monday, ETH appears to continue the horizontal trajectory, hovering just below the $3,000 level. Considering the $3,010 price level is the average purchase price for most short-term holders, it's proving to be a strong support for ETH.
ETH/USDT 4-hour chart
However, an 11% decrease could cause most short-term holders to panic into selling, potentially triggering a massive sell-off. On the other hand, an 11% increase could trigger a bullish momentum for Ethereum.
ETH liquidations also slowed down to $30.8 million on Monday, with long liquidations only $5 million higher than shorts. In the short term, ETH could see a slight increase over the next few days in an attempt to balance the price inefficiency on Friday, extending from $3,045 to $2,905.
Bitcoin's recent signs of a potential bullish reversal could also push ETH higher due to their positive correlation. It's also important to watch out for US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech on May 14 and the US CPI inflation report on May 15 as they may cause heightened volatility in the market.
Ethereum FAQs
Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain with smart contracts functionality. Serving as the basal network for the Ether (ETH) cryptocurrency, it is the second largest crypto and largest altcoin by market capitalization. The Ethereum network is tailored for scalability, programmability, security, and decentralization, attributes that make it popular among developers.
Ethereum uses decentralized blockchain technology, where developers can build and deploy applications that are independent of the central authority. To make this easier, the network has a programming language in place, which helps users create self-executing smart contracts. A smart contract is basically a code that can be verified and allows inter-user transactions.
Staking is a process where investors grow their portfolios by locking their assets for a specified duration instead of selling them. It is used by most blockchains, especially the ones that employ Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism, with users earning rewards as an incentive for committing their tokens. For most long-term cryptocurrency holders, staking is a strategy to make passive income from your assets, putting them to work in exchange for reward generation.
Ethereum transitioned from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism in an event christened “The Merge.” The transformation came as the network wanted to achieve more security, cut down on energy consumption by 99.95%, and execute new scaling solutions with a possible threshold of 100,000 transactions per second. With PoS, there are less entry barriers for miners considering the reduced energy demands.
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