Ethereum [ETH] faced significant selling pressure from a prominent investor who acquired a substantial amount of ETH during the 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) boom.
EmberCN, an analyst, reported that this investor received 150,000 ETH from the ICO stage and recently sold 5,000 ETH ($12.22 million) on October 8th. Over the past month, the investor has offloaded a total of $113 million worth of ETH, equivalent to 45,000 coins, according to EmberCN.
“The investor who acquired 150,000 ETH during the ICO transferred 5,000 ETH to Kraken worth $12.22 million in the last 4 hours. In the past two weeks, they have sold a total of 45,000 ETH valued at $113.2 million, at an average price of $2,516.”
Despite these significant sell-offs, the investor still retains over $200 million in ETH holdings.
Impact on ETH’s Price
Interestingly, the investor’s selling spree coincided with a general lack of demand for ETH from U.S. investors, as indicated by the negative readings on the Coinbase Premium Index, suggesting limited interest in ETH at present.
This lack of demand could potentially delay the expected recovery of ETH after its recent drop below the $2,500 mark.
In the short term, analyses of whale orders and liquidation heatmaps highlighted $2,400 and $2,550 as important levels to monitor.
If a significant liquidation event occurs, a large number of long positions at $2,400 may be closed out, potentially triggering price movement.
Conversely, significant short positions have been accumulating around the $2,450 and $2,550 levels.
Additional analysis of whale orders revealed presence of a sell wall on Binance in the range of $2,500 to $2,520 (indicated by red lines) and a buy wall at $2,400 (indicated by green lines) at the time of reporting.
On shorter timeframes, ETH has dipped towards immediate support just above $2,400 and currently trades at $2.42K, representing an 8% decline in the past week.
Despite these figures, technical indicators show weakness, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) below average and trading volume decreasing. The short-term recovery of ETH may hinge on maintaining levels above $2,400 and reclaiming the $2,500 level.