An old Ethereum whale has been selling off their holdings over the past two weeks.
The sell-off has contributed to a decline in Ethereum's price since the start of October.
Ethereum critics have resurfaced with jabs at the cryptocurrency's stagnation.
Despite individual investor sell-offs, institutional investors are showing renewed interest.
Several indicators and some analysts remain bullish on Ethereum's long-term future.
Ethereum FUD has once again returned to the market. According to recent reports, an early Ethereum investor has continued their two-week selling spree again this week.
Said whale who participated in the Ethereum Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2014 has just offloaded another staggering 19,000 Ether.
This tranche of coins is valued at roughly $47.5 million according to a 3 October observation.
LookOnChain was the first to draw attention to this trend, following prior large selloffs over the past week.
So far, Ethereum has slid by 10% since the start of the month. This has fueled massive speculation and concerns within the crypto community—and everyone wants to know:
What are the implications of these sell-offs?
LookOnChain notes that the Ethereum whale in question originally got 150,000 ETH during the ICO in mid-2014.
They got these coins at a total cost of just $46,500, interestingly.
Today, that stash is valued at close to $400 million—which is what they have been liquidating bit by bit via transfers to the Kraken exchange.
LookOnChain notes that the selling started in late September when this mysterious wallet first sent 12,000 ETH (worth around $31.6 million) to Kraken.
This most recent sell-off now involves 19,000 $ETH worth $47.54 million in a mere two days.
As expected, this selling spree has caused a noticeable effect on Ethereum’s prices.
The cryptocurrency has fallen sharply considering how on 1 October, it had a price of $2,650.
Two days later (around the time of the sell-off) on 3 October, the price had dropped to $2,365.
This showed up as a near 5% decline — which is more than the broader crypto market's 2.6% decline in the same timeframe.
This implies that Ethereum might be performing worse than the rest of the market.
Ethereum critics have wasted no time in resurfacing amid the ongoing decline.
These critics have drawn attention to Ethereum’s “persistent” stagnation and its inability to break above or even retest $3,000.
One major example is Solana maximalist "Cozy The Caller".
In a recent tweet, the analyst declared: “Ethereum doing nothing these days but dragging crypto even lower.”
This outlook echoed the sentiment of several other analysts who pointed out that even ICO whales are dumping their holdings.
Despite this, Ethereum supporters like Anthony Sassano remain steadfast.
In a recent tweet, the ETH maximalist stated“The FUD is neverending, and most people in this industry don’t actually care about the truth.”
This showed unwavering support for the cryptocurrency, even despite the obstacles in its path upwards.
Interestingly, Ethereum investors are now more divided than ever into bulls and bears.
Individual investors are dumping their holdings massively. However institutional ones appear to be showing renewed interest.
For example, on 2 October the spot Ethereum ETF market recorded inflows of nearly $20 million.
Farside data shows that BlackRock led this charge, in a show of confidence for the market's larger players.
Ethereum ETF inflows
This trend marks the largest weekly inflow of funds into this particular ETF market since launch.
Interestingly, the Bitcoin ETF market saw outflows compared to Ethereum's, with Farside data showing outflows of $53 million.
This shows a clear distinction between institutional Bitcoin and Ethereum investors.
While all of this fud is going on, many analysts remain optimistic about its long-term prospects.
Julien Bittel the head of macro research at Global Macro Investor for example, recently stated something interesting.
According to the analyst, the cryptocurrency is showing similarities with a historical fractal from January 2023 to March 2024.
Interestingly in that period, ETH consolidated between $1,500 and $2,000 before breaking out to $3,500.
Per insights from the analyst, Ethereum could surge to as high as $10,000 by the end of the year if it continues down this path.
This is also interesting because according to PolyMarket data, 88% of bettors believe that Ethereum will not register a new ATH this year.
Ethereum at a new ATH
Other more bullish factors pushing Ethereum include its macroeconomics.
The biggest of this is the global M2 money supply growth—Here’s why this matters:
Historically speaking, Bitcoin's price has closely followed changes in the M2 money supply.
This metric simply measures liquidity in the global economy as illustrated:
The global M2 growth metric
If central banks begin to ease monetary policies in response to economic uncertainties, this metric could lift Bitcoin upwards.
Considering how Bitcoin and Ethereum have a positive correlation, a major surge in Bitcoin could do wonders for Ethereum as well.
Who knows, maybe even towards the $10,000 mark as Bittel predicts.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.