Whales dump Ethereum – should you be concerned?

• Ethereum whale liquidation amidst market volatility raised concerns about dwindling engagement.
• Despite whale disinterest, Ethereum saw a surge in non-zero addresses, indicating retail investors’ continued interest.

In the wake of a significant Bitcoin correction that reverberated through the cryptocurrency market over the past few days, causing price fluctuations across various coins, Ethereum [ETH] also experienced notable impacts.

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Due to these factors, whales started to sell large portions of their ETH.

According to Lookonchain, a sizeable whale liquidated a 10,600 ETH valued at $17.2 million, at a price point of $1,622. This transaction incurred a loss of $2.9 million for the whale.

A more comprehensive examination of the transaction data painted a broader picture. The said whale ventured into 18 different token trades, with only four of them turning out to be profitable. This translated to a relatively modest success rate of 22%.

Although the whale managed to accumulate a profit of $10.8 million from its Ethereum holdings, the situation is not entirely favorable. It also incurred a $3.6 million loss on PDT trades and an additional 1.3 million loss on $MPL trades.

As whale interest in Ethereum seems to wane, retail engagement tells a different tale. Illustrated by data from Glassnode, the number of non-zero addresses skyrocketed to an all-time high of 104,794,621.

This suggested sustained interest among individual users despite the ongoing market volatility.

Source: Glassnode

Ethereum’s market activity took center stage as the Exchange Inflow Volume surged to a 1-month peak of 9,630.147 ETH. This surge in inflows into exchanges could potentially reflect evolving market sentiment and highlight potential selling pressures.

Source: Glassnode

Nevertheless, despite the increase in exchange inflows, Ethereum’s network activity exhibited a divergent trajectory. Low gas usage indicated a reduction in general network activity, particularly in terms of smart contract interactions.

In contrast, the NFT sector seemed to maintain relatively stable activity levels.

Source: Santiment

Ethereum’s current landscape

Due to the behavior of whales and other factors, Ethereum’s price shifted from $1820 to $1627 over the last week, indicating a noticeable decline. Network growth also experienced a slowdown, suggesting a possible decrease in new user onboarding.

Realistic or not, here’s ETH’s market cap in BTC’s terms

Furthermore, Ethereum’s transaction velocity exhibited a decline, hinting at less frequent trading activities.

The MVRV ratio, a metric used to gauge whether holders are experiencing profits or losses at a given time, offered a mixed perspective for Ethereum. The negative MVRV ratio implied that a significant portion of Ethereum holders were not realizing profits at press time.

Source: Santiment