Ethereum Price Prediction: Whale Activity Could Take ETH Lower

Ethereum (ETH) traded at $1,559 on Wednesday, down 2% on the day and 6% lower than its price seven days ago. The largest altcoin by market capitalization has been sealed in a downtrend since turning away from the $2,000 level in July.

As a result, the crypto is down 22% over the last six months. Although it has gained more than 30% since January, the technical set-up and onchain mentrics show that Ether's value may continue dropping in the near term, particularly due it whale activity.

On-chain data reveals that Ethereum whales have sold around 12 million in the cryptocurrency within the past year and are showing no signs of slowing down.

Crypto researcher and data analysts James V. Straten, analyzed in a post on X how the Bitcoin and Ethereum whales have shown some stark contrast in their behavior. He shared the following chart from Glassnode saying that ETH Whales are "all in a massive downtrend. In the space of a year, we've seen 12M ETH offloaded, since 2020, its 20M ETH."

Started concluded that "significant sell pressure is coming and persistent for #Ethereum."

In defining a "whale", the analyst has chosen the 1,000 tokens cutoff for both ETH. If these large investors continue offloading their Ethereum tokens, the price is set to continue dropping.

Could ETH Drop to $1500 In the Near Term?

At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading in a fifth straight bearish session with the $1,550 level providing immediate support. A daily candlestick close below this level would see the price drop to seek solace from the $1,500 psychological level. This would represent a 3.6% decline from the current price.

This is where Ethereum's downside could be capped in the near term. Note that the price of the smart contracts token has not traded below this level since mid-March. This means that buyers are congested around this level and would frustrate any attempts by the sellers to pull the price lower.

ETH/USD Daily Chart

Supporting this negative outlook for ETH is the downward trajectory taken by the stochastic RSI. The position of this trend-following oscillating indicator and its value at 85 suggested that the price was fully under the control of sellers.

On the upside, the Stochastic RSI painted extremely overbought conditions for the altcoin suggesting that a trend reversal may be in the offing as seller exhaustion sets in and more bulls buy more in the dips.

The ensuing buying pressure could push the price back above the $1,600 psychological level and later to the 50-day simple Moving Average at $1,632. This is where Ether's upside could be capped in the near term.