Institutional Accumulation Defies Ethereum’s Price Decline

While Ethereum’s price action shows significant strain, a notable divergence is emerging beneath the surface. On December 23, 2025, the cryptocurrency breached the psychologically critical $3,000 level, trading around $2,920—a 24-hour decline of 3.19%. This move triggered substantial market turbulence, yet it coincided with aggressive buying from specific large-scale investors, creating a puzzling contrast in institutional behavior.

Robust Network Fundamentals Amid Price Weakness

Despite the falling price, the underlying Ethereum ecosystem demonstrates remarkable strength. Network growth continues unabated, with an average of 163,000 new wallet addresses created daily throughout December. Peak days, such as December 2, saw nearly 197,400 new addresses. The total count of non-empty wallets now exceeds 167.9 million, significantly outpacing Bitcoin’s 57.6 million.

The recently activated Fusaka upgrade has delivered key enhancements. PeerDAS has doubled the data capacity available for Layer-2 scaling solutions, while Verkle Trees have improved data storage efficiency. These developments have already led to noticeably lower transaction costs for rollups, marking a concrete step toward broader network scalability.

Ethereum maintains its commanding lead in decentralized finance (DeFi), hosting a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $70 billion, which represents a 63% market share. Its stablecoin supply stands at $172.1 billion. A particularly explosive growth area is real-world asset tokenization. Since the start of 2024, this market has expanded by 735% to reach $12.5 billion, with two-thirds of that value residing on the Ethereum blockchain.

Technical Breakdown and Selling Pressure

The break below $3,000 ignited a wave of liquidations, forcing the closure of $62 million in long positions alone. Trading volume surged 31% to $18.8 billion, driven primarily by these forced sales rather than organic demand.

The technical picture remains challenging. Ethereum is trading well below its key moving averages:
– 10-day average: $2,987
– 20-day average: $3,019
– 200-day average: $3,579

The substantial gap to the 200-day line underscores the distance the asset must travel to recover its longer-term trend. Traders are now watching the $2,900 to $2,875 zone as critical support, especially with options worth $27 billion set to expire on December 26.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Ethereum?

Spot ETF Outflows Reach a Peak

U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs recorded their largest weekly outflows since August 2025, with over $600 million exiting the products. BlackRock’s ETHA fund alone saw outflows of approximately $470 million, followed by Fidelity’s FETH ($35 million) and Grayscale’s ETHE ($49 million).

While these funds had attracted a total of $12.4 billion since the start of the year, the recent reversal signals waning institutional appetite, likely influenced by macroeconomic uncertainties including Federal Reserve interest rate policy and potential shifts in the Yen carry trade.

Selective Major Buyers Emerge

Contrasting the ETF trend, corporate entities are accumulating. BitMine has acquired approximately 4 million ETH, bringing its total crypto holdings to a value of $13.2 billion. This gives the company control over 3.37% of Ethereum’s circulating supply. BitMine reports maintaining a concurrent liquidity reserve of $1 billion in cash.

In aggregate, corporate treasuries and spot ETFs now hold nearly 11% of all ETH: 5.63% in company vaults and 5.09% in ETF structures. This concentration reduces the tradable supply, a situation compounded by the fact that only 10.5% of all Ether now sits on centralized exchanges—a historic low.

Near-Term Price Trajectory

The immediate outlook remains bifurcated. A decisive breakout above $3,150 could pressure short hedges and open a path toward the December high of $3,447, recorded on the 10th. Conversely, a sustained move below $2,980 could see the price retreat toward $2,740.

The “Seller Exhaustion Constant” metric from Glassnode sits at 0.027, its lowest reading since June 2025. This indicates that selling pressure is not yet exhausted and supply continues to outweigh demand. Until ETF flows stabilize and macroeconomic clarity improves, Ethereum is likely to remain range-bound. The upcoming options expiry on December 26 may provide the next catalyst for a directional move.