Ethereum whales pull back, but traders, watch out THIS ‘make-or-break’ level!

• ETH’s Long/Short Ratio stood at 0.95, indicating bearish sentiment among traders. 
• Ethereum could rally and shift this bearish sentiment if it closes a daily candle above the $1,840 mark.

Ethereum [ETH], the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, appears to be losing whales’ interest.

Following the breakout of a prolonged descending trendline, ETH experienced a slight upside move and initially gained attention from whales, but that interest now seems to be fading.

Data reveals that following the breakout, ETH’s price jumped over 16%, but it faded and turned into a consolidation.  Over the past four trading days, the price barely moved, a factor that likely drove whales to retreat.

Are whales abandoning Ethereum?

On-chain data from IntoTheBlock revealed that whale transactions between $1 million and $10 million have significantly dropped by 62.42% over the past week.

This massive decline indicates that major players or institutions are pulling back.

Source: IntoTheBlock

However, not only did transactions worth $1 million to $10 million drop, but transactions between $100,000 to $1 million and $10,000 to $100,000 also declined by 43.14% and 27.94%, respectively, over the past seven days.

Additionally, on-chain metrics further reveal that the number of large transactions has dropped by 51.68%, indicating lower interest from whales.

When combining these metrics with ETH’s price momentum, it indicates bearishness for the asset and may signal a potential price decline.

Traders bearish view

At press time, ETH’s Long/Short Ratio stood at 0.95. In fact, 51.17% of top ETH traders positioned themselves short, while 48.83% remained long, according to Coinglass.

Source: Coinglass

Looking at these metrics, it appears that, along with whales, traders have also begun shifting their sentiment toward the bearish side in anticipation of a price decline.

At press time, ETH traded near $1,805, posting a 0.55% decline over the past 24 hours.

During the same period, its Trading Volume dropped by 40%, indicating lower participation from traders and investors compared to the previous day.

Ethereum’s price action and key levels 

According to AMBCrypto’s technical analysis, ETH appears to be in a make-or-break situation as its price moves into the narrow zone of an ascending triangle pattern on the four-hour time frame.

Source: TradingView

Historically, a breakdown from this pattern could lead to a sharp decline, with ETH potentially dropping over 7% to retest the horizontal support level near $1,690.

However, there is also a chance for an upside breakout. This would occur if ETH breaks above the neckline of the ascending triangle pattern and closes a four-hour candle above the $1,840 mark. Such a move could trigger a significant upward rally.

Despite current challenges, ETH remains above the 200 Exponential Moving Average (EMA) on the four-hour chart, signaling that the asset is still in an uptrend.