Whales Just Bet $832 Million on the Ethereum Price Dip, Here’s Why

Ethereum (ETH) price has lost 3.6% since May 10, dipping significantly inside a falling channel that has held since April 17. Whales used the dip to load up on $832 million in ETH.

Derivatives positioning shows the rally that preceded the breakdown was short-covering, not new longs piling in. That hands whales a low-leverage entry. The catch sits with long-term hodlers, who have cut accumulation by nearly 80% since late April.

Whales Bought $832 Million as the Price Slid

The Ethereum whale supply, excluding exchanges, tells a story the price chart misses. Whale wallets have steadily added ETH through the recent breakdown. The metric climbed from 124.69 million ETH to roughly 125.05 million across the period, an increase of 360,000 ETH.

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At an current ETH price, those 360,000 tokens carry a market value of about $832 million.

ETH Whale Supply: Santiment

The timing matters. The breakdown that started May 10 took ETH down 3.6% in two days. Whales added to their positions through that dip rather than reducing exposure. This kind of behavior usually signals confidence that the chart’s bearish pattern will not resolve to the downside. Whales rarely accumulate into a setup they expect to break lower.

Price Drop: TradingView

The bigger question is why they are so confident. The answer sits in the derivatives data.

Ethereum Derivatives Confirm the Optimism Is Not Over-Leveraged

The derivatives side explains why whales are willing to accumulate into the breakdown. Ethereum open interest in perpetual futures dropped from $12.46 billion on May 7 to $11.98 billion on May 12. That is a decline of roughly $480 million.

Ethereum funding rate, the periodic payment between perpetual swap longs and shorts, has stayed elevated at around 0.012%. The rate was 0.010% on May 7.

Open Interest and Funding Rates: Santiment

The combination is telling. Falling open interest with elevated funding suggests shorts closed positions, not new longs adding leverage.

In other words, the optimism is real but conservative. There is no large stack of fresh long bets sitting on top of the market, waiting to be liquidated.

That is exactly the kind of backdrop whales prefer. The leverage stack is thin enough that an external shock will not trigger a cascading flush. But not every on-chain group agrees with the whale read.

Ethereum Hodlers Cut Accumulation by Nearly 80% Since Late April

The Ethereum hodler net position change tracks the daily change in ETH held by long-term wallets. The metric typically captures wallets that have held the token for over 155 days.

The reading peaked at 383,128 ETH on April 27. By May 11, that figure dropped to 77,675 ETH, a decline of roughly 80%.

Long-term holders have not stopped accumulating outright. They are still net buying, just at a sharply slower pace. The pace of spot buying from this cohort has thinned to roughly a fifth of the late-April rate.

ETH Hodler Net Position Change: Glassnode

The likely explanation is the same elevated funding rate that signals optimism on the derivatives side. Hodlers see funding above 0.01% as a warning that the market is leaning too long. They pull back from chasing the rally. That sets up the conflict. Whales see the falling open interest and call the optimism healthy. Hodlers see the elevated funding rate and call it overheated.

Whoever is right shapes the next leg, and the chart is the decider.

Ethereum Price Holds the Floor With $2,269 as the Trapdoor

Ethereum trades at $2,311 on the daily chart, down 1.2% on the day. The structure remains contained inside a descending channel that has held since the April 17 high.

Whale support has kept the price above $2,298, the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement of the broader pullback.

A clean daily close below $2,298 exposes $2,269, the 0.618 Fibonacci, as the next floor. That is just a 2% drop on the day.

ETH Price Analysis: TradingView

Beneath $2,269, $2,227 and $2,174 come into the picture. A break below $2,174 exposes the lower trendline of the descending channel and risks a decisive draw lower.

On the upside, a reclaim of $2,327 puts the chart back toward neutral. A move above $2,363 shifts the structure to neutral-bullish. The target then becomes $2,422 in the short term.

Ethereum price is locked between whale buying at the floor and hodler caution above. $2,298 separates a slow recovery setup from a 2% slide that exposes $2,269 next.