The cryptocurrency market has been consolidating over the past few days, with Bitcoin stuck below the $70k level.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is also trading below $2k despite adding less than 1% to its value in the last 24 hours.
Ether’s performance comes as whales continue to accumulate more ETH tokens thanks to the current market conditions.
Whales continue to load up on ETH
Ether is trading above $1,970 per coin after adding less than 1% to its value.
The performance comes as whales continue to purchase more Ether tokens.
Whales or wallets holding 10K-100K ETH paused their buying activity last week.
However, their long-term accumulation remains strong.
Data obtained from CryptoQuant shows that whales have purchased 840k ETH since February 4, despite the current market conditions.
Retailers, on the other hand, saw a brief period of accumulation at the beginning of the past week, but have been reducing their exposure since then.
Retailers are primarily wallets with balances of 100-1K & 1K-10K ETH.
Retailers have been reducing their exposure to ETH as Ethereum exchange reserves, which measure the total supply of ETH in exchanges, have been rising over the past five days.
During that period, exchange reserves have increased by over 180k ETH, indicating an increased selling pressure.
Institutional demand for spot Ethereum ETFs has also reduced in recent weeks.
The ETFs recorded a fourth consecutive week of net outflows totaling $161.1 million.
According to SoSoValye, the selling pressure among institutional investors persists but has slowed down since the start of the month.
The continued selling pressure comes as Ether has underperformed in recent weeks, failing to recover its realized price or the average cost basis of investors.
Derivatives data also shows that leverage has failed to return to the market.
Ether’s Open Interest (OI) has dropped to 11.76 million ETH.
Furthermore, funding rates continue to flash negative, suggesting rising short positioning.
Ether could drop below $1,900 as market sentiment remains weak
The ETH/USD 4-hour chart remains extremely bearish and efficient as Ether has underperformed over the past few days.
At press time, ETH is trading below the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $2,223, reinforcing a bearish bias and capping rebound attempts.
Ether staying below this level keeps pressure on the price in the near term.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 45 stays below the midline, indicating weak momentum without an oversold signal.
The MACD lines are also below the neutral zone, confirming the bearish bias.
If the market rallies higher, the first major resistance level would be at $2,107.
An extended bullish scenario would see Ether attempt to push past the 20-day EMA at $2,223.
However, if the market recovery fails, ETH could retest the support level at $1,741.
The next major support level is around $1,404, which was last visited in April 2025.
https://invezz.com/news/2026/02/17/ether-holds-above-1900-as-whales-accumulate-check-forecast/
