The selling of old Ethereum is accelerating, which has been going on since 2021 and has provided active pressure to the market with initial investors selling large amounts.
Approximately 45,000 ETH is being absorbed in the market daily and this change of behavior on the long-term holder is putting extra pressure on the already weak sentiment.
Quickening distribution of long-term wallets
Statistics indicate that the older Ethereum wallets are at a fast distribution stage. An activity of selling addresses between three to ten years has been on a high level, similar to that in years. Such holders to seem to be making profits to protect against additional downside risk, which is affected by falling sentiment and a liquidation wave. The last selling brought ETH to a low of $3,152.17 and open interest to a low of $17 billion. Distribution commenced in August and was accelerated during the last month when the market conditions deteriorated especially following the huge liquidation process on October 11.
Profit taking is caused by high unrealized gains
The number of long-term holders of Ethereum continues to possess a high number of unrealized gains. MVRV ratio is 2.1 in 2025 which is the highest of the year. This indicates that a good number of investors are still in profit and this creates an incentive to gain profits when in the times of instability. Negative MVRV will be a sign of capitulation which Ethereum is not in yet during sell-offs. The market feeling is still poor and the ETH fear and greed index is now standing at 29. Little anticipation of a wide altcoin season also helps to boost short-term trading and a reserved view of the market.
ETH still carries significant unrealized value, based on the MVRV ratio. Whales are active on realizing profits, but also on the buying side during market dips. | Source: TradingView.
Whales gather in the down-turn of the market
Although there is intense selling on older wallets, a number of big investors have intervened in the fall in price. The interrelated Seven Siblings wallets have grown their assets by making significant buys on Uniswap and Cow Protocol. There is a wallet containing more than 260 million wrapped ETH and one with more than 322 million of the same properties. These wallets have bought a total of 1.2 million ETH in the recent downturn and leveraged the exposure via Spark Protocol. Their participation has indicated past market lows.
The other whales purchased 2.53 million more ETH at an approximate price of 3,150, and this strengthened a new support level. Accumulation behavior was also observed in a wallet that was tied to BitMine, and another high-profile investor added 16,937 ETH, which was close to the weekly release of new tokens.
Ether has contrasting tendencies with old buyers leaving and tactical purchasers entering. The market is still a bit wary, yet whale buying demonstrates areas of assurance. The next few weeks can be the determining factor on whether long-term selling continues or if recent buying will stabilize the price action.
