Ethereum has been one of the cryptocurrencies to maintain a reasonably high level even through multiple price crashes in the market. However, it seems like the altcoin will not be able to hold as it has done in the past with a dreaded bearish signal resurfacing to threaten the asset’s price.
Ethereum Addresses Holding More Than 1,000 Coins Fall
Over the last few years, the Ethereum whales have fervently held on to their coins. The large holders were some of the most convinced when it comes to the altcoin, with the number of wallets holding more than 1,000 coins maintaining above 2018 lows. However, the support has broken as conviction has declined.
Glassnode reported on Wednesday, September 20, that the number of ETH addresses holding more than 1,000 coins has finally fallen to 6,082. The last time that the figure was this low was back in 2018 when the bear market was in full bloom.
Addresses holding more than 1,000 coins fall to 5-year low | Source: Glassnode
This means that for the last five years, this number has held, until now. The significance of this decline is evident in what happened the last time when the figure was this low. With the bearish trend that was recorded in 2018, expectations have turned to a decline for Ethereum’s price as well.
What Happened The Last Time?
In 2018 when this Ethereum metric was at this level, the altcoin’s price suffered massively. The year saw its price plunge from as high as $1,367 to as low as $80 in the span of 12 months. The low conviction that followed this would carry on into the next year, triggering a long bearish winter for ETH.
Ethereum’s already tepid hold on the $1,600 level is also threatened by massive sell-offs. Over the last few days, there have been a series of large transactions all carrying massive amounts of ETH toward centralized exchanges.
The most recent of these transactions include 22,343 ETH worth $36.2 million at the time of the transaction being moved to Coinbase. Two hours later, Whale Alert flagged another large transaction carrying 16,500 ETH ($26.77 million) to the OKEx crypto exchange.
Since one of the major reasons why investors transfer tokens to centralized exchanges is to take advantage of their deep liquidity and sell their tokens, it is possible these whales are looking to sell these coins. In such a case, investors could be looking at massive selling pressure on the horizon for ETH, which could send its price back below the $1,600 support.
ETH bulls struggle to hold $1,600 support | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com
Featured image from Bitcoinist, chart from Tradingview.com