Ethereum Veteran’s Large ETH Transfer Triggers Price Crash Fears

A massive Ethereum transfer worth a couple of million dollars is causing jitters across the Ether (ETH) market due to its association with a veteran investor, insomuch that some are calling it a sign of an impending price crash.

ICO-era Address Moves Over 3,500 ETH To Exchange

An Ethereum initial coin offering (ICO) participant who gained 150,000 ETH (worth $389.7 million at current market value) and has been dormant for over two years recently deposited 3,510 ETH (approximately $9.12 million) into Kraken.

Large Ethereum holders, especially those who have been dormant for years, depositing ETH to exchanges can create short-term pressure on the market. If many whales start offloading ETH, it could result in downward pressure on the ETH against the US dollar and Bitcoin.

The sentiment grows toward bears also due to an underperforming Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) sector in the US. Notably, these ETFs have together suffered inflows worth $607.60 million since their debut in July 2024, albeit Grayscale’s investment vehicle being the main culprit behind the withdrawals.

Furthermore, Ethereum’s largest whale cohorts have been distributing their ETH holdings for months.

For instance, the Ether supply held by entities with a balance between 1 million and 10 million ETH (the brown wave) shows a downward trend in holdings, potentially indicative of sell-offs or reallocation of their assets to the lower cohort—those holding between 100,000 and 1 million ETH (the black wave).

Meanwhile, the 10,000,000+ ETH cohort (the gray wave) is increasing their holdings, suggesting that the largest entities, which could include exchanges or Ethereum Foundation-related wallets, are accumulating.

Ethereum Technical Analysis: Rangebound Action Continues

From a technical perspective, ETH’s price is trading inside a narrow weekly range defined by its 50-week exponential moving average (50-week EMA) at around $2,750 as resistance and the 200-week EMA (the blue wave) at around $2,105 as support.

Recent moves increase ETH’s probability of pulling back from its $2,750 resistance to test the $2,105 support by October. Interestingly, the downside target aligns with the lower trendline of Ether’s prevailing triangle pattern.

Therefore, breaking below the support confluence could risk crashing the ETH price toward the 0.236 Fibonacci retracement line at around $1,980. Conversely, a rebound could have bulls retest the 50-week EMA.