Is Ethereum price on the verge of a retracement? The cryptocurrency has maintained bullish momentum since the first week of November.
It carried on the trend in the first week of December but signs of returning sell pressure are making a comeback.
The first major sign of ETH sell pressure observed recently was related to whale activity. Large holder activity has been at the forefront of driving ETH demand.
IntoTheBlock data revealed that large holder outflows recently surpassed large holder inflows.
A sign that whales have been taking profit. Inflows declined to 280,700 ETH as of 7 December. Meanwhile, outflows were higher at 312,920 ETH during the same period.
Higher outflows than inflows in the whale category could be a sign of sell pressure build-up. This was not the only indication pointing towards that direction.
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Ethereum Price Milestone, Bearish Divergence and Cup and Handle Pattern
Ethereum price rallied above $4,000 on Friday for the first time since March. This was a significant price point for multiple reasons. The first being that the uptick extended the bearish divergence with the RSI.
The bearish divergence points towards the possibility of a pivot. In addition, price previously demonstrated resistance near the $4,000 price level in the past.
Retesting the same level could therefore yield a surge in profit-taking.
The third major observation underscoring a potential wave of sell pressure this week was the formation of a cup and handle pattern.
The recent uptick completed the curve part of the pattern, which means it will start forming the handle.
The handle is the final part of the pattern and it is usually in the form of a pullback. The next key price points to look out for in this pattern are $3,315 and $3,050.
Market Sentiment Shifts Revealing Growing Expectations of a Bearish Outcome
Traders have been reacting to the aforementioned signs. This was particularly evident in the shift in ETH long vs short ratio.
The percentage of short positions grew from 50.3% to 52.13% in the last 3 days. This confirmed that the number of short positions rose considerably.
Although these observations suggest that ETH may experience some short term sell pressure, things could still turn out different.
A higher push from the current position would likely trigger heavy liquidations. Potentially forcing investors to buy more ETH to cover losses in a short squeeze type of scenario. But how probable is that outcome?
Well, exchange flows revealed that ETH inflows into exchanges were significantly lower than exchange outflows.
Roughly 180,562 coins exited exchanges in the last 24 hours at the time of observation. In contrast, exchange inflows amounted to 140,781 coins during the same period.
Open interest was also high at $27.54 billion at the time of observation, mostly backed by positive funding rates. This suggests that investors in the derivatives segment were still optimistic about more potential upside.
The observations aligned with the situation in the spot market which remained in the green. However, the most notable thing here is that the positive flows cooled down during the weekend.
This underscores the possibility that sell pressure could take over in the next few days. Meanwhile, the general outlook for ETH in 2025 remains bullish.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2024/12/08/large-holder-flows-turn-net-negative-as-sentiment-shifts-to-bearish-for-ethereum-price/