ETH drops below 3400 but rises for 6 consecutive days, what are the whales heavily accumulating?

Based on the latest market data, ETH/USDT is currently quoted at $3361.5. Although it has fallen below the key psychological level of $3400, the 24-hour increase still reaches 5.71%. More notably, ETH has risen 6.85% over the past 7 days and 13.43% over the past 30 days. Behind this seemingly “downward” appearance, market participants’ movements tell a different story.

Short-term gains are strong, but the price remains at a critical level

From recent price performance, ETH’s upward momentum is quite stable. According to data, the current ETH price is $3377.05, with a market cap of $40.759 billion, accounting for 12.33% of the total cryptocurrency market cap.

The $3400 level may seem just a psychological barrier, but for market participants, it represents an important technical support. ETH repeatedly confirms this level, indicating strong market absorption at this point.

Signals from whales and institutional布局

The most telling evidence comes from on-chain and exchange large transactions. According to recent monitoring data, several key players are actively accumulating ETH.

Institutional-level continuous accumulation

BitMine continued its scaled ETH accumulation strategy last week, adding approximately 32,977 ETH, bringing its total holdings to about 4.1435 million ETH, which is 3.43% of the global supply. Their goal remains to reach a 5% holding ratio. This company has become a leading enterprise ETH treasury.

Similar布局 continues. Last week, Bit Digital purchased 31,057 ETH, increasing its total ETH holdings to about 150,244 ETH. These large positions by listed companies reflect institutional confidence in ETH’s medium- and long-term prospects.

Bullish signals from trading activity

On-chain data shows that high-frequency trading whales opened a long position of 3,477.95 ETH (about $10.96 million) with 25x leverage on January 12, with an average entry price of $3,165.38. Although currently showing a floating loss of $43,000, such high-leverage large positions are themselves bullish signals.

Even more interesting, the previous largest PEPE long position has been closed, and the trader has switched to a 4x leveraged long of 5,618.97 ETH (about $17.75 million), with an average entry price of $3,097.29, currently with a floating profit of $330,000. This shift from high-risk assets to ETH reflects, to some extent, market participants’ recognition of ETH’s relative safety and upside potential.

Multiple fundamentals supporting the upward trend

Factors supporting ETH’s continued rise are not limited to sentiment.

On-chain activity and stablecoin growth

According to analyst Michaël van de Poppe, ETH’s price bottomed out in April 2025, with a trend highly similar to the 2019 cycle. The growth of stablecoin supply by over 65%, the surge in tokenized assets, and ongoing developer activity all form a bullish foundation. Currently, the total market cap of stablecoins on the Ethereum chain exceeds $163.9 billion, laying a solid foundation for DeFi ecosystem activity.

Policy expectations as catalysts

The US Senate is about to review the structure of the crypto market, which could lead to various high-impact scenarios. Market analysis suggests that bipartisan breakthroughs or purely partisan pushes could cause price fluctuations in major cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH. Amid policy uncertainty, institutional pre-positioning has become a common strategy.

Sufficient exchange reserves

Gate’s latest reserve report shows that the total ETH user holdings amount to 337,565 ETH, with a reserve of 419,320 ETH, an excess reserve ratio of 24.22%. Sufficient exchange reserves imply more robust risk management and greater security for user funds, which is crucial for maintaining market confidence.

Technical reference

Based on 4-hour candlestick analysis, the current buy zones for ETH are at $3080.6 and $3075, with recent support at $3075 and resistance at $3127. The KDJ indicator shows an overbought condition (value of 86), and the MACD histogram remains positive but is gradually shortening, indicating that bullish momentum is weakening but the trend has not yet reversed.

Summary

The news of ETH falling below $3400 may seem pessimistic, but from multiple dimensions, it appears more like an adjustment rather than a reversal. The continuous rise over the past 24 hours to 30 days, the dense布局 by whales and institutions, on-chain fundamentals, and policy catalysts all support a bullish outlook.

The key question is not whether “ETH will continue to fall,” but rather “where is the ceiling for this rally.” Based on current布局 density and participant confidence, $3400 seems more like a midway point rather than an endpoint. Future focus should be on the progress of the US Senate’s crypto legislation review and whether ETH can break through the psychological barrier of $3400.