Ethereum price recovers slightly as whales begin accumulation spree

Ethereum (ETH) showed signs of recovering its bullish momentum on Thursday, briefly rising to $3,618 as whales entered a buying spree. Despite the movement from whales, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Wells notice to Uniswap could affect Ethereum in the long run.

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Daily digest market movers: Whales accumulation, Bitcoin correlation, Wells notice

Ethereum joined a host of other altcoins in trading in the green on Thursday after two days of sustaining a bearish move. Here are your key market movers for the largest smart contract blockchain:

• After ETH's slight increase on Thursday, large ETH whale Ox347 deposited 9000 ETH tokens to Binance at $3,560 in a bid to book profits, according to onchain insights from Spot On Chain. Although this is the whale's largest ETH deposit to date, its address still holds 29,738 ETH worth a whopping $106 million with an estimated profit of $68.5 million.
   
• Despite the profit-taking from whale Ox347, onchain data from Lookonchain indicates that some other whales are taking opposite actions:
  
  Whale 0x4359, who had earlier bought 10,309 ETH ($35.82 million) at the bottom of the price drop on Wednesday, withdrew another 3,092 ETH ($11.12 million) from Binance on Thursday. As a result, his total ETH withdrawals from Binance in the past three days have reached 24,044 ETH ($86.5 million).
  
  Another whale, 0xACc7, withdrew 22,251 ETH ($80.06 million) from exchanges on Thursday, taking their total exchange withdrawals in the past three days to 33,925 ETH ($122.06 million).
  
  Some crypto community members have speculated that the whales' recent move may be to participate in the restaking boom that's heating up in DeFi, especially with the Mainnet launch of EigenLayer. Data from Lookonchain confirms this as whales/institutions withdrew ETH from Binance and staked it into Pendle and Bedrock.

• While the recent price increase may have several factors layered in, it shows Ethereum still maintains a significant correlation with Bitcoin (BTC). Like several other large-cap altcoins, Ethereum's price movement has largely mimicked Bitcoin's since the beginning of the year. Hence, the Bitcoin halving – less than eight days away – could prove critical in determining ETH's price movement in the coming days.
   
• On Wednesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells notice to Ethereum's largest decentralized exchange, Uniswap. The Wells notice, a formal document indicating the SEC's intention to take legal action against an individual or firm, was issued based on claims that Uniswap operated as an unregistered securities broker and exchange.
  
  If the SEC succeeds in taking legal action against Uniswap, it could significantly affect the broader DeFi landscape. This would have telling effects on Ethereum, the underlying home to roughly 80% of DeFi solutions. Earlier in March, the SEC had issued subpoenas to three firms that had dealings with the Ethereum Foundation. Many crypto community members have stated that the SEC aims to classify Ethereum as a security.

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Technical analysis: ETH may continue sideways movement

ETH's price has been following a sideways pattern after recovering from the one-week correction that followed the high of $4,094 on March 11. While traders expected a rally back to the $4,094 high when ETH tagged the key resistance of $3,730 on Monday, the price retraced. The continued sideways move indicates traders are exercising caution and are indecisive on whether to go long or short.

ETH/USDT 4-hour chart

Read more: Ethereum's price recovery looks imminent as ETF approval sees a glimmer hope

The constant switch between increased long and short liquidations in the past two weeks confirms this indecision. ETH may continue this sideways movement until key events like the Bitcoin halving and the SEC's spot ETH ETF approval decision take place. However, a bearish trend may begin if the price breaks key supports of $3,210 and $3,056 formed on April 5 and March 20, respectively.

Ethereum is trading at $3,500, up 0.8% at the time of writing.