Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH investors return to selling, took $1.5 billion in profits after recent rally

Ethereum price today: $2,530

• Ethereum's recent decline from $2,700 was fueled by selling activity from investors who realized $1.5 billion in profits.
• Increased inflows of 640K ETH into accumulation addresses and staking protocols partly explain why ETH's decline hasn't accelerated.
• ETH could validate a bullish flag pattern if it sustains a firm rally above the $2,750 and $2,850 resistance levels.

Ethereum (ETH) is down 2% on Thursday following investors stepping up profit-taking after the top altcoin's 30% price jump last week. However, bulls are looking to weather the selling pressure, with over 640K ETH inflows into accumulation addresses.

Ethereum investors book $1.5 billion in profits from recent rally

After rising toward $2,700, Ethereum tapered some of its recent gains in the past two days, briefly declining below $2,500 on Thursday.

The slight decline follows increased selling activity among investors, depicted by a spike in ETH's Age Consumed to its highest level since October. Age Consumed measures the amount of coins distributed in a day multiplied by the number of days they last moved.

ETH Age Consumed. Source: Santiment

The spike indicates a large distribution, with coins in the long-term holders bracket also joining the selling activity.

This is evidenced in the decline across all age cohorts in ETH's Mean Coin Age metric, which tracks the average number of days investors have held their tokens. A downtrend in the Mean Coin Age signals increased distribution, and vice versa for an uptrend. 

ETH Mean Coin Age. Source: Santiment

Following the distribution, ETH investors have booked nearly $1.5 billion in profits since the beginning of the week. Over $900 million came from realized profits within the past 24 hours — the highest since June 10, 2024. Despite ETH's 30% jump over the past week, the selling pressure also saw some investors realizing losses of nearly $300 million.

ETH Network Realized Profit/Loss. Source: Santiment

Meanwhile, Ethereum's Net Taker Volume shows short traders are building up positions again following the recent price rise. Short traders previously held significant positions in ETH before the market crash in Q1, which saw most of their positions being filled.

Net Taker Volume. Source: CryptoQuant

Ethereum bulls may withstand the selling pressure

With the positive sentiment from trade deals fading into the background, the market lacks a major catalyst to maintain the buying momentum from last week. However, ETH bulls aren't slowing down, triggering 640K ETH inflows into accumulation addresses (addresses that haven't ever sold) in the past two days.

ETH Inflows into Accumulation Addresses. Source: CryptoQuant

Whale holdings and staking inflows also stretched their rise from last week, per CryptoQuant data.

The inflows partly explain why ETH's decline hasn't accelerated despite the increased selling pressure in the past two days.

Ethereum Price Forecast: ETH eyes bullish flag pattern but faces two key resistance levels

Ethereum saw $109.88 million in futures liquidations in the past 24 hours, per Coinglass data. The total amount of long and short liquidations is $79.36 million and $30.52 million, respectively.

ETH is testing the support near $2,500 after seeing a rejection at $2,750, a level that stood as a resistance between September and November 2024.

ETH/USDT 8-hour chart

If the downside pressure persists and ETH falls below $2,500, it could find support near the key range between $2,250 and $2,100. A bounce off this range and subsequent rally above the resistance levels at $2,750 and $2,850 will validate a bullish flag pattern, potentially sending ETH above the $3,000 psychological level.

On the downside, a decline below $2,100 could see ETH test the $1,688 support.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has retreated from its overbought region while the Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) have declined below their neutral levels, indicating that the bullish momentum is weakening.