Wedson asserted that wallet addresses holding between 100,000 and 1,000,000 ETH have significantly reduced their holdings over the past 90 days, showing that big holders are selling or moving large amounts of ETH. What’s more interesting is that this shave-off is happening from non-exchange whale wallets.
In other words, major private ETH holders, institutions, or early investors may be actively decreasing their exposure, and this could indicate profit-taking, risk-off positioning, or preparation for volatility. All in all, Wedson noted that when this group of whales begins to unwind positions, it often means that a structural shift is occurring beneath the surface.
As of this writing, the price of Ethereum stands at around $2,010, showing an almost 5% jump in the past 24 hours.
Slumping Global Backdrop Affecting ETH MostStarting with the risk-off global climate, Darkfost referenced the core Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures inflation at the wholesale level. The Core PPI MoM at +0.8% confirmed persistence of inflation, suggesting that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to cut interest rates soon, which is unfavorable for risk assets.
However, Ethereum’s Open Interest (OI) on all exchanges dropped from 7.79 million ETH to 5.8 million ETH, with about 2 million of that figure concentrated on Binance. This exposes that traders are closing positions and leverage is being reduced, with exposure to ETH also shrinking.
Additionally, the Notional OI, which measures the total dollar value of open contracts, experienced a sharper drop as positions were closed. For instance, Binance’s Open Interest dropped from over $12.6 billion to $4.1 billion, while Bybit’s cut by two-thirds to $1.9 billion. This shows broad deleveraging across the entire market and not just one platform.
Overall, the Ethereum derivatives market is shrinking, as traders are unwinding leverage in response to macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures. Moreover, the current market condition hasn’t been particularly encouraging for investor risk appetite — as seen with the ETH whales.
