ETH struggles below $3,000 – is another pullback on its way?
2025 has been a rollercoaster of a year for the second-largest cryptocurrency. It began on a high note, alongside the rest of the market, but slumped after the first Trump-induced tariffs to under $1,500 in April. It went on a massive run in the following months and broke its 2021 all-time high by coming inches away from the $5,000 mark.
The trend since then has been precisely the opposite, as it plunged by almost 50% to bottom out at $2,600 in late November. Despite a few price jumps above $3,000, it has been unable to reclaim that level decisively and now sits inches below it. But there are additional warning shots for its future price performance.
Investors Selling Off
Data shared by Ali Martinez shows that Ethereum whales had disposed of $360 million worth of ETH in the past week alone. Their total holdings have been declining ever since the early October run-up from more than 5.73 million tokens to 5.61 million as of press time.
$360 million in Ethereum $ETH sold by whales in just one week! pic.twitter.com/wUNcGoJi5r
— Ali Charts (@alicharts) December 20, 2025
Another worrying trend on the sell side is the recent behavior of investors using the spot Ethereum ETFs to gain exposure to the asset. Farside data paints a clear picture, as the funds have been in the red for seven consecutive trading days since December 11. They have lost almost $650 million in the past week alone, and over $700 million since December 11.
The total net inflows into the ETH-based exchange-traded funds stood at over $15 billion in early October but have declined to under $12.5 billion as of Friday’s close.
The Flipside
Unlike the aforementioned selling spree by different cohorts of investors, on-chain data suggests that retail has been returning. Santiment presented evidence that the number of newly created ETH addresses has seen a few impressive spikes to well over 190,000 daily in December, which are levels even higher than those seen in July, right before the underlying asset started to gain traction.
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Additionally, some analysts, such as Merlijn The Trader, believe ETH could be on the verge of a breakout. He compared the current setup to the 2015-2018 parabolic rally in terms of accumulation that could open the door for the asset to surge by triple-digits against BTC.
“This Ethereum Move Will Catch Everyone Off Guard,” he concluded.
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