Ethereum Buying Pressure Reaches Critical Level Amid Massive Whale Buying

Institutional investors have been accumulating Ethereum at a rapid pace after the SEC’s recent approval of Spot Ethereum ETFs. Crypto analyst Ali Martinez noted that this accumulation trend has created buying pressure that could be the much-needed catalyst for Ethereum to break above the $4,000 price mark.

According to a social media post by Ali Martinez, the number of Ethereum addresses holding over 10,000 ETH tokens has increased by 3% in the last three weeks, showing a positive trend among large investors. 

Speculation over ETF approvals and increasing institutional buy-in have helped fuel Ethereum’s price increase earlier this year. The first price surge occurred in February when multiple reports came out of the SEC potentially approving Spot Ethereum ETF applications after the approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs.

This saw the price of Ethereum surging over 83% throughout the month to reach above $4,000 again for the first time since 2021. Similarly, court rulings in May, which increased the odds of Spot Ethereum ETF approval, pushed the price of ETH above $3,000 again. 

Now that the SEC has finally approved these spot ETF applications, institutional investors are taking the chance to load up their portfolios with Ethereum. According to Glassnode data, this accumulation, which has been going on for the past three weeks, has pushed the number of wallets holding over 10,000 ETH past 975 and steadily approaching 1,000 addresses. Furthermore, data shows that the number of ETH mega-whale addresses has steadily increased in the past 30 days, with the recent metric showing an addition of 15 whale addresses. 

The number of #Ethereum addresses holding 10,000+ $ETH has increased by 3% in the last three weeks, signaling an important spike in buying pressure! pic.twitter.com/7qq5HgGP37

— Ali (@ali_charts) June 9, 2024

On-chain data also reveals that social sentiment for ETH has stabilized after intense enthusiasm post-Spot Ethereum ETF approval. However, this hasn’t stopped the massive withdrawal from exchanges, leading Ethereum to become scarcer on centralized exchanges. This trend has now seen the Ethereum balance on centralized exchanges dropping below Bitcoin, even as Spot Bitcoin ETF wallets also accumulate Bitcoins. According to Glassnode data, less than 10.56% of Ethereum’s total supply is currently held on major exchanges.  

With whales doubling down on Ethereum, the buying pressure has reached a critical point. This surge of interest signals a very bullish outlook for Ethereum’s price in the coming months, although there could be short-term volatility. 

At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at $3,527 and has fallen 3.83% in the past 24 hours. While the increase in buying pressure is a good start, the bulls still have some work to do to push Ethereum’s price higher. The first major resistance wall is around $3,700, where 1.82 million addresses hold 1.8 million ETH.