Ethereum holds above $2,300 despite retail selling pressure

Ethereum is showing a modest gain on Tuesday, trading near $2,380 and holding above the key $2,300 level. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap is up roughly 0.8% on the day and has climbed more than 3% over the past week. But beneath that surface, there is a more complex story playing out.

Retail investors, loosely defined as wallets holding between 100 and 10,000 ETH, have been heavy sellers. Over the past week, that group offloaded around 820,000 ETH. When you combine that with the previous week, the total distribution from these cohort wallets has reached nearly 1.5 million ETH. That is a significant amount, and it suggests that smaller holders are taking profits or cutting exposure.

A lot of this selling pressure appears to be coming from short-term holders. The 90-day Mean Coin Age metric, which tracks how long coins have stayed in wallets without moving, has fallen steeply. That is usually a sign that newer investors are the ones selling. Meanwhile, the staking picture is also not looking great. Investors unstaked roughly 300,000 ETH in the past week, marking the largest weekly outflow from staking since November.

Whales take the other side

But here is where it gets interesting. While retail is distributing, whales are accumulating. Last week, large wallets added about 230,000 ETH to their holdings. That sort of divergence can sometimes be a contrarian bullish signal, though it is not a guarantee. Larger investors might be betting on a longer-term recovery, while smaller traders are acting more cautiously.

On the derivatives side, the sentiment is still cautious. Ethereum perpetual futures have shown consistently negative funding rates, even as open interest has risen slightly above 14 million ETH. That suggests many traders are still leaning bearish, or at least hedging their bets. Negative funding rates often indicate that short positions are paying longs, which is not a classic sign of bullish conviction.

Technical levels to watch

Price action, however, tells its own story. Ethereum’s daily chart has a constructive bullish tone. It is holding above the 20-, 50-, and 100-day exponential moving averages, which are grouped between roughly $2,260 and $2,361. That cluster of EMAs often acts as dynamic support. The Relative Strength Index is around 59, which is not overbought but is leaning bullish. The Stochastic Oscillator is in the mid-70s, indicating bullish momentum that is not yet extreme.

On the upside, the first real test is at $2,388, which is both the 100-day EMA and a nearby horizontal resistance. If buyers push through that, the next targets are $2,746 and then $3,411. On the downside, immediate support sits at the 20-day EMA around $2,305 and the 50-day EMA near $2,260. Below that, horizontal supports come in at $2,211 and $2,107, with deeper floors at $1,909 and $1,741.

Over the past 24 hours, Ethereum saw about $38.7 million in liquidations. Interestingly, $26.1 million of that came from short positions being liquidated. That suggests a brief squeeze might have occurred, giving momentum to the current bounce. But with retail selling and negative funding still in play, it remains to be seen if this is a real trend shift or just a temporary relief rally.

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