A mysterious whale sold $88 million worth of ETH in 15 hours, revealing short-term profit-taking pressure.
Ethereum's recent trading price is close to $4,600, just 5% away from the historical high of November 2021. However, at this time, the mysterious '7 Siblings' whale group is undergoing a massive sell-off. According to LookOnChain data, this group sold 19,461 ETH at an average price of $4,532 in 15 hours, valued at $8.82 million, marking the first large-scale liquidation after accumulating 1.21 million ETH (valued at $5.6 billion).
Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation also sold 2,795 ETH (valued at $12.7 million) when the price hit an annual high, reducing its holdings to only 99.9 ETH and 11.6 million DAI. Opinions in the community vary, with some believing it to be a strategic exit at a high point. The profit-taking pressure from short-term holders is also becoming evident; Glassnode data shows that short-term ETH holders are earning approximately $553 million daily, far exceeding long-term holders, though the current profit-taking level is 39% lower than last month's peak.
Institutional and corporate demand has surged, and the ETF and coin hoarding trends provide strong support.
Despite whale sell-offs, Ethereum is still strongly supported by institutional and corporate funds. On August 12, Ethereum ETFs saw inflows for the sixth consecutive day, totaling $523.9 million, with a previous single-day inflow reaching a historic high of $1 billion. Among these, BlackRock's ETHA saw a single-day inflow of $640 million, accumulating to $10.806 billion; Fidelity's FETH had a single-day inflow of $277 million, with a total of $2.797 billion, indicating significant institutional capital investment.
Corporate holdings also reached an all-time high: in July, corporate ETH holdings surged by 127%, surpassing 2.7 million coins (valued at $11.6 billion). After the addition of 24 companies, the number of firms holding large amounts of ETH reached 71. Among the leading companies, BitMine Immersion Technologies applied to issue $20 billion in stock (with a total issuance capacity of $24.5 billion) to increase its ETH holdings, currently holding 1.2 million coins (valued at $5.27 billion); SharpLink Gaming holds 598,800 coins (valued at $2.74 billion), and The Ether Machine holds 345,400 coins (valued at $1.58 billion).
Technical breakout from 8 years of consolidation, long-term upward trends are supported by historical precedents.
Technical analysis shows that Ethereum is undergoing a critical breakthrough: the ETH/BTC ratio has broken out of an 8-year triangle consolidation pattern, reaching 0.03917, which encompasses nearly half of Ethereum's historical trend and is considered one of the significant technical breakthroughs in cryptocurrency history.
On the daily chart, ETH has completed its fifth major parabolic cycle, with each cycle's peak and trough gradually rising; after breaking through $4,600, it has escaped multiple long-term consolidation ranges.
Historical data shows that similar breakthroughs have led to explosive increases — in previous cycles, ETH rose from $80 to over $4,000, an increase of 54 times. Currently, gas fees have dropped to $0.53, a level historically associated with large-scale on-chain activity and price surges; the number of addresses holding over 10,000 ETH has also increased to 868,886, indicating a rise in market participation.
Despite short-term whale sell-offs, institutional demand and technical breakthroughs indicate a long-term upward trend: the recent target looks towards $5,000-$6,000. If the 8-year consolidation breakout continues historical patterns (4-10 times increase), a target of $10,000-$15,000 remains achievable.