Ethereum whales sell $321 mln in 60 seconds! Still, a tough battle remains

• Ethereum’s Taker Sell Volume spiked to $10.3B, reflecting strong market-wide sell pressure from whales and retailers.
• ETH dropped to $2.3K before recovering to $2.4K, as dip-buyers absorbed the bearish wave.

Since hitting a local high of $2.8k a week ago, Ethereum [ETH] has traded within a descending channel. Over the past day, ETH touched a low of $2.3K, reflecting a sharp increase in downside pressure.

This drop didn’t come out of nowhere.

The price struggled to stay afloat as profit-booking intensified. Naturally, the more ETH hovered in a narrow band, the more holders chose to offload, revealing waning conviction.

$321M in a minute? 

According to CryptoQuant analyst Maartun, Ethereum witnessed a significant spike in selling pressure.

He observed that Ethereum’s Taker Sell Volume across all exchanges surged significantly, recording over $321.3 million in one minute. 

That’s not a routine pullback. It marked intense sell-side aggression, with both whales and retailers contributing to the spike in volume.

In fact, in total, ETH recorded $10.3 billion in Taker Sell Volume before cooling to $839.6 million. This level of activity often mirrors fear or aggressive profit-taking.

Of course, the panic wasn’t just reflected in trade volumes. ETH also recorded 1.2 million coins in Exchange Inflows, mostly from whales.

Who’s buying what they’re selling?

When we looked at Large Holders Netflow, the data indicated that whales sold 519k ETH while buyers scooped 471k ETH.

This leaves a negative netflow of -48.75k ETH, signaling a higher selling activity from Ethereum large holders. 

Such negative Netflow, paired with rising inflows and elevated Sell Taker Volume, spelled out strong bearish sentiment. Either holders were locking in profits or scrambling to cut losses.

Buyers step in, but is it enough?

As expected, this surge in selling activity impacted ETH’s price movement. It briefly slipped from $2.5K to $2.3K. But that wasn’t the end of the story.

As of this writing, Ethereum recovered to $2,424. This mild rebound hints that some buyers saw an opportunity to buy the dip, absorbing the pressure and halting further downside, at least for now.

Wait for THIS tipping point!

Interestingly, Exchange Netflow turned negative, with outflows beating inflows by about 3.4K ETH.

Simply put, Ethereum buyers have entered the market and absorbed the recently witnessed selling pressure. Yes, that is typically a bullish sign.

That said, the battle isn’t over. ETH has returned to a consolidation zone, where bulls and bears appear locked in a short-term stalemate.

Therefore, if the bulls can hold their positions, it will boost ETH to reclaim $2575, which is a key level to keep bullish momentum alive. Conversely, if sellers retake the market once again, ETH could dip to $2350.