ETH drops below $2900, but the signals behind institutional quietly positioning

According to the latest news, ETH/USDT is currently trading at $2873.33, down 4.8% over the past 24 hours, hitting a recent low. This decline is not an isolated event but part of a broad sell-off across the entire crypto market. Interestingly, during this downturn, the behavior of institutional investors reveals different signals.

Background of the Market-Wide Decline

This ETH drop occurred against the backdrop of a broader correction in the crypto market. Data shows that the entire crypto sector has experienced a pullback, with 24-hour declines generally between 2% and 9%. The GameFi sector led the decline with an 8.58% drop, Layer1 decreased by 4.80%, and DeFi fell by 5.97%.

Bitcoin was also not spared, falling below $93,000 with a 2.89% decrease. From this perspective, ETH’s decline is more a reflection of overall market sentiment rather than fundamental issues with the project.

Recent Price Trend Data for ETH

From the data, ETH’s decline over the past week is significantly larger, indicating that the correction has been ongoing for some time rather than a sudden crash.

Signals from Institutional Activity

Large holdings are accumulating

According to the latest news, Bitmine Immersion, led by Tom Lee, currently controls over 4.167 million ETH, accounting for 3.4% of the circulating supply of Ethereum. This is a substantial holding, reflecting institutional confidence in ETH at current price levels.

Bitmine’s move is quite meaningful: the ETH balance on exchanges has decreased to about 16.3 million, indicating that a large amount of ETH has been transferred from exchanges into long-term holders. This is often seen as a bullish signal.

Divergence among traders

Interestingly, while some traders are cutting losses on ETH long positions (for example, a trader known as “Never Short” closed two ETH longs today, incurring a loss of $38,000), institutional-level allocations are increasing. This reflects differing expectations among market participants regarding the future.

Improvements in Long-Term Fundamentals

Although short-term prices are under pressure, ETH’s long-term fundamentals continue to improve:

• Gas fees have dropped from previous highs of $50 to $0.01, comparable to Solana
• Daily transaction volume has reached a record 2.6 million transactions, with no surge in fees
• These improvements are driven by Fusaka upgrades, PeerDAS launches, and widespread Layer 2 adoption

While these enhancements may exert short-term pressure on prices (as lower costs could reduce demand for ETH), in the long run, lower usage costs are likely to attract more users and expand the ecosystem.

Expert Opinions

According to the latest news, crypto investment expert Tom Lee stated in a recent media interview that Bitcoin could hit a new high this year, and Ethereum might outperform Bitcoin. This view aligns with actual institutional allocation behaviors.

Summary

The short-term decline of ETH should be viewed objectively. On one hand, it’s part of the broader market correction, with sentiment under pressure; on the other hand, institutions continue to accumulate at lower levels, and long-term fundamentals are improving. Short-term price fluctuations often present opportunities for long-term positioning. Currently, attention should be on whether ETH can hold support around $2800 and whether market sentiment can rebound. For long-term investors, this correction might actually present a relatively reasonable entry point.