Why are reserves decreasing $ETH

According to The DeFi Report, large L2 networks like Optimism and Base have been experiencing a mass exodus of ETH since the beginning of 2025. Analysis shows that one of the key reasons for this trend is the decline in the prices of the native tokens of second-layer networks. The OP token from Optimism has decreased by 38% over the last 90 days, while ARB from Arbitrum has dropped by 21%.

Investors are moving to other platforms, with some ETH returning to the main Ethereum network, which has a higher degree of security and is considered safer. The volume of ETH in staking and the number of long-term holding addresses have reached new highs, confirming the hypothesis that investors prefer saving strategies over active trading in L2 networks.

The movement of ETH from accumulation addresses is another factor contributing to the outflow of Ethereum from L2 networks. Data from CryptoQuant shows that large wallets are redistributing assets, and the number of coins on accumulation addresses (holders without a sales history) has reached a record level of 22.8 million ETH.$OP $ARB