Maelstrom CIO Arthur Hayes has bought his altcoin holdings, beginning with Ethereum. He dumped 6,400 ETH value $15.2M. The agency additionally offloaded $2.76M of Ethena [ENA], $2.24M of Uniswap [UNI], EtherFi [ETHFI], Aerodrome [AERO], and Zama.
In whole, Hayes bought $22.28M value of altcoins. Defending his transfer, the crypto investor stated,
I dumped it all. The Maelstrom directional e-book took income on ETH, ENA, UNI, and different shitcoins. I believe we gotta go right down to go up. It appears to be like a bit dicey on the market in macro and geopolitical land.
Even US fairness markets closed decrease on Friday. BTC additionally dropped to $80K following hypothesis that the U.S. was shifting its personnel out of the Middle East, suggesting a possible renewed rigidity with Iran.
But Ethereum’s strain is coming from a number of fronts.
Ethereum is below bearish strain
First, ETH has been probably the most bought crypto asset by ETF traders in October. So far, the merchandise have seen $1.1B in month-to-month outflows, almost 3x greater than BTC, which noticed $313M in outflows.
This was the second-largest month-to-month outflow for the U.S. spot ETH ETF since its debut. The report month-to-month promote-off of $1.42B occurred final November. With one other week left earlier than October involves an finish, the pending macro and geopolitical fears might set off extra outflows.
Ethereum OGs or early traders, some who purchased ETH whereas it was beneath $1, have been cashing out in droves too. Some of this cohort sold over $8M value of ETH in the previous 48 hours.
Since final June, Bitmine has been buying ETH for its treasury functions. It has now collected 6.053M ETH, or 99% of its 5% ETH provide goal. That means it might cease shopping for ETH at any time, blocking one other demand channel that has sustained the altcoin for over a yr.
Currently, a mean of 20K ETH is added to the availability each week. Without Bitmine and the ETF continued promote-off, it will turn into one other strain issue.
Perhaps one of many constructive catalysts is the record staking demand for ETH. Unfortunately, this additionally means new issuance rewards to stakers, which provides to the availability in the primary place.
Can Ethereum bulls defend $2,300?
Taken collectively, if the macro and geopolitical backdrop doesn’t enhance, additional draw back threat might be possible. If so, dropping $2,364 might drag to $2,200 or $2,100.
The $2300-$2400 has been a key assist zone since September and a key hurdle in H1 2026. However, ETH has dropped by 15% from the latest excessive of $2,800. Breaking beneath $2,300 would reinforce the $2400 degree as one other hurdle for bulls.
Final Summary
- Hayes offloaded over $22M of altcoins, together with $15M in ETH holdings.
- ETF traders bought +$1 billion of ETH in October, greater than another crypto asset.
