Whales have reduced their ETH holdings by more than 21% since their peak in October.
The native coin Ethereum finally managed to break its all-time high during the 2025 rally, but only slightly compared to other assets, such as BTC. Its subsequent behavior has been quite painful, as it now trades more than 53% away from its peak of $4,950 in August 2025, even after the market-wide recovery seen in the past few weeks.
Furthermore, on-chain data shows that whales have been dumping their assets, which begs the question: What would it take for ETH to recover to $3,000 or more?
Whales moving away from ETH?
Recall that ETH whales He went on a massive accumulation spree In the middle of last year, it peaked shortly after all-time highs and before the massive market crash in early October. More precisely, those who own between 1,000 and 10,000 tokens have increased their portfolios from 12.95 million to 15.95 million in just several months, according to data shared by Ali Martinez.
Since then, their behavior has changed change Other than A Some short exceptions. Their total holdings fell by 21.5%, putting them below their starting point of 12.95 million to 12.52 million ETH, Martinez continued.
Given this large exodus of whales, Martinez wondered whether they would be able to sustain a deeper rally to $3,000 and above. In fact, he suggested the asset may require “a new wave of institutional or retail demand” to offset whale distribution.
Ethereum whales are doing something they haven’t done in a year.
Since October 6, 2025, Ethereum whales have between 1,000 and 10,000 coins. $ Ethereum They have undergone a major systemic change in their market behavior.
Before this transformation, this group was in a fixed accumulation system. they… https://t.co/5WAJSKsnl9 pic.twitter.com/qezrxfq6Re
– Ali Charts (@alicharts) May 7, 2026
Are ETFs flowing?
After five consecutive months of outflows that dominated inflows, Spot Ethereum ETFs finally Break this negative streak In April, it attracted more than $355 million in new capital. Although May started off well as well, with nearly $170 million coming into the money in just several days, the year-to-date numbers remain in the red.
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Moreover, the ETH ETF’s total cumulative net inflows are far from its early October peak of around $15 billion. At last week’s closing bell, it was worth just over $12 billion.
Therefore, it is safe to assume that ETF investors have not stepped up their efforts to offset the whale distribution yet. Perhaps this is why ETH remained more than 53% below ATH in August 2025, and all breakout attempts were stopped at $2,400.
