Regarding the story of violent selling in Ethereum to change hands, it has been widely circulated since the first half of this year. At that time, most people's evaluation was: retail investors love to fantasize.

However, on-chain data has long revealed this fact: during the dark five months (from December 2024 to April 2025) when the ETH price free-fell from $4,000 to $1,500, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), which measures the concentration of holdings, surprisingly rose to levels seen in 2018.

This divergence between price and concentration indicates a silent migration of capital — chips are being transferred in bulk from retail wallets to whale addresses. This type of operation has often been seen in A-shares, Hong Kong stocks, or small-cap U.S. stocks, and now it is appearing in ETH.

Data shows that during the crash, the top 100 addresses' holding ratio rose from 35% to 42%, with a continuous positive net inflow of ETH to whale addresses daily. The main players used "ETF delays" and other negative news to precisely create panic, quietly accumulating positions while retail investors were cutting losses. This type of "time-space compression" capital operation allowed the new players to complete chip collection at the historically lowest cost.

When ETH returns to $3,000, the market will realize that the "death spiral" at $1,500 was actually a carefully designed stress test.

The futures open interest and spot holdings formed a perfect hedge, with market makers steadily catching every ETH sold during the crash. This new market structure is rewriting the traditional "stock manipulation theory" — there is no tender offer, only silent wealth transfer between on-chain addresses.

This change of hands brings three insights:

First, on-chain data reveals trend reversals earlier than prices;

Second, the "bear market" in the crypto market is essentially a restructuring period of capital;

Finally, the next bull market will be led by institutions, showing more refined control characteristics.

So while retail investors are still debating the life and death of Ethereum, capital has already completed the repricing of core assets. The turning point for ETH's washout has quietly occurred at $1,500.