ETH Holders Double Down While Others Head for the Exit

• ETH long-term holders increased their holdings by over 22%, even after entering unrealized loss territory.
• Whale activity signals mixed market sentiment, with some selling while others quietly accumulate more ETH.

Ethereum may not be looking great on the price charts, but the story behind it is interesting. Since hitting a cycle peak of $4,107 on December 16, 2024, ETH has been trending lower. However, long-term holders don’t seem to be panicking. They are hanging on and even growing their holdings. On-chain evidence backs this up, hence it’s not only idle speculation.

ETH Holders Buy More as Losses Mount

According to on-chain data shared by analyst Carmelo Aleman at CryptoQuant, on March 10, 2025, a key indicator emerged: the price of ETH fell to $1,866.7, while the realized price of the accumulative addresses was recorded at $2,026. This means they have officially entered the territory of unrealized losses.

But instead of giving up, they are actually buying even more. Data shows that on that day they held 15.5 million ETH, and by May 3, the figure had jumped to 19 million ETH. If we make an analogy, it’s like someone who keeps saving even though the value of their savings is plummeting, because they believe that good days will come.

Whales Stir as Exchanges See Rising Inflows

On the other hand, there is indeed selling pressure that cannot be ignored. One of the Ethereum whales with the initial address 0x016 has just moved 1,130 ETH (equivalent to $2.05 million) to Binance. The ETH was purchased three months ago for $3.62 million.

If sold now, it would be the same as being willing to lose almost 43%. Not only that, the flow of ETH to the exchange has also increased by 12% in the last day. So, short-term pressure remains.

However, in the midst of a situation like this, there is still an interesting story. One of the old whales who had previously slept for six months suddenly woke up and bought 1,700 ETH worth $3.1 million on May 6. The total ETH he holds now has reached 5,000 ETH, although his position is still minus around $3.6 million. Not only is he reckless, but he may have something the market doesn’t yet realize.

Furthermore, ETH’s direction is starting to show interesting signs. On May 2, ETH approached a breakout level above $1,850, with a long-to-short ratio of 1.16 and trading volume reaching $21.6 billion—up more than 3%. For those who love statistics, the second quarter has been kind to Ethereum, with an average return of nearly 60%.

Imagine if this massive accumulation was indeed an indication of a turning point. Long-term investors who had hung on despite the losses kept adding ETH while reducing their average price from $2,026 to $1,980. This was not a hasty choice; they obviously had motives and hopes.

Of note, the CNF previously reported that Ethereum’s 2025 roadmap highlights major scalability improvements, including Layer 2 expansion and the implementation of EIP-4844, aka “blobs,” in pursuit of a target of 100,000 transactions per second.

Vitalik Buterin’s main focus also does not stray far from interoperability, security, and user convenience, through updates such as the Pectra upgrade, VDF integration, and cross-chain bridge development.

As of press time, ETH is swapped hands at about $1,804.80, moving sideways in the last 7 days and its daily trading volume reached $10.91 billion.

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