ETH long-term holders and whales join retailers in selling activity

Ethereum price today: $2,200

• Ethereum exchange reserves have risen by over 500K ETH in the past week as prices remain subdued by bears.
• The sell-off has been dominated by whales, who have distributed over 620K ETH in the past five days.
• Ethereum struggles near the $2,200 support as bears could push prices to $1,500.

Ethereum (ETH) is down 2% on Friday as long-term holders and whales joined small-scale retailers in broadening the selling activity.

Ethereum whales shed holdings amid extended bearish pressure

Ethereum exchange reserve has been rising rapidly since February 21 with investors depositing over 500K ETH on exchanges for potential selling activity.

ETH Exchange Reserve. Source: CryptoQuant

The recent selling pressure has been initiated by whales and long-term holders (LTHs) who are potentially looking to cut losses or sell before prices fall to their cost basis. With the bearish pressure now sustained for nearly a month, this group has joined short-term holders (STHs) and retailers in the selling activity.

The slight decline in the Mean Coin Age and increase in the Dormant Circulation of older coins age band shows the move from LTHs.

ETH Mean Coin Age & Dormant Circulation. Source: Santiment

Additionally, in the past four days, whales holding between 10K-100K ETH have shed over 620K ETH, sending prices toward the $2,000 psychological level.

ETH Supply Distribution. Source: Santiment

Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) announced the launch of the Silviculture Society, a group of individuals that includes builders and core community voices to help provide “informal counsel” to its team members.

“It is an experimental effort to create more channels for builders and other community voices to influence the EF, and in this case the scope is core cypherpunk and regen values. They have already given advice on timely and critical topics such as wallet security,” wrote Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in an X post on Friday.

Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH struggles near $2,200 amid rising bearish pressure

Ethereum sustained $231.69 million in futures liquidations in the past 24 hours, per Coinglass data. The total amount of liquidated long and short positions accounted for $179.85 million and $51.85 million, respectively.

ETH is down nearly 20% on the weekly timeframe and is struggling to hold the $2,200 lower boundary of a rectangular channel as bearish sentiment continues to pressure the crypto market. If ETH fails to hold the $2,200 level, it could decline to test the support near $1,500 — a level last seen in October 2023.

ETH/USDT weekly chart

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) are below their neutral levels, indicating dominant bearish momentum.

Meanwhile, the Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) is deep in the oversold region, indicating ETH could be primed for a recovery.

A weekly candlestick close above $2,850 will invalidate the bearish thesis.