Whales take $16 mln ETH to Bitcoin, yet Ethereum remains strong

Key Takeaways

Whales exited Ethereum, swapping $16 million for WBTC, while institutions withdrew $38 million in ETH. Retail holdings dropped, but ETH/BTC held 0.037 support.

As the market underwent intense selling pressure, the largest capped cryptocurrency is emerging as the go-to safe haven.

Whales and retail traders who panicked swapped Ethereum [ETH] for Bitcoin [BTC], while others closed leveraged trades at losses.

Ethereum had outperformed BTC over the last three months. But was this the end of ETH’s relative strength?

Profits crumble under pressure

Some participants seemed to be accepting this as the end of ETH’s outperformance of BTC from their actions.

One whale on Hyperliquid lost about $6.22 million in the crypto market crash. This trader had grown his starting capital of $125K to $7 million, with the peak at $43 million.

The 4-month profits had been reduced to only $771K after liquidation.

Per Lookonchain data, another whale swapped 3,900 ETH worth $16.26 million for 143.26 Wrapped Bitcoin [WBTC] at 0.03673, signaling capital rotation to BTC.

Historically, an ETH/BTC dump coupled with capital rotation has preluded the end of the altcoin season. So, will the narrative hold now?

The twist: ETH/BTC ratio still resilient

The ETH/BTC ratio held firm at 0.037, above support at 0.033. Its recent peak at 0.039 suggested momentum toward 0.040.

Naturally, this pullback could explain liquidations and capital shifts. Yet, the pair has carved higher highs since April’s 0.025 low, keeping the structure bullish.

Anyway, institutional activities on the network and views of legendary traders suggested that the altcoin season was not yet over.

Institutions split on Ethereum

Of importance, BlackRock, Fidelity and Grayscale sold Ethereum on Coinbase as per Arkham. This ended their buying streak that started in early this year and intensified in April.

The institutions usually sell their tokens at higher levels, prices crash, and then they go long at a cheaper cost. This usually shakes out weak hands.

Supporting this intentional manipulation of price was the fact that other institutions were buying. Two institutional addresses withdrew $38 million in ETH from FalconX.

CryptoQuant data added nuance. Retail holdings plunged to 8.6 million ETH, while large investors climbed to 10.8 million ETH.

The institutional sell-off urged caution. However, confirmation of a cycle break requires ETH to lose bullish structure on higher timeframes.