The recent steep decline in Ether prices has been heavily influenced by massive selling activity from major market makers.
Over the past few days, five of the top market makers sold a combined total of 130,000 ETH, valued at nearly $290 million at current prices, causing Ether’s value to plummet from $3,000 to below $2,200.
Among the top market makers, Wintermute led the sell-off with over 47,000 ETH sold, followed by Jump Trading with over 36,000 ETH, and Flow Traders with 3,620 ETH. GSR Markets and Amber Group also participated, selling 292 ETH and 65 ETH respectively, according to research by 0xScope.
Jump Trading kicked off the sell-off, but Wintermute sold the most substantial amount of Ether. The sell-off has pushed Ether to struggle to maintain the $2,200 psychological mark. Ether’s price fell by 22.3% over 24 hours, hitting a low of $2,195 before recovering slightly to trade at $2,233.
The decline in Ether’s price coincides with the launch of the first spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States on July 23. Despite this historic launch, Ether ETF inflows have remained low, recording over $511 million worth of cumulative net outflows since their debut. Grayscale’s Ether ETF (ETHE) accounted for the majority of these outflows, totaling over $2.1 billion, while other ETF issuers reported net positive inflows.
– Advertisement –
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, suggested that while Ether ETFs mark a significant regulatory development, they may only serve as a “sidekick” to Bitcoin ETFs in terms of inflows.
Despite the current market turmoil, some analysts remain cautiously optimistic. Pseudonymous crypto trader MarketWizard pointed out that Ether’s price could double from the current low if it follows similar patterns from two years ago. “Despite how scary things are [right now], ETH is at the sweet spot. Retesting the 2 year base that caused a x2 earlier this year,” MarketWizard wrote in an X post.
