Ethereum fell more than 16.8% over the past seven days and briefly dipped under $1,600 on Friday, hammered by macro pressure, Middle East tensions, a cautious Fed, and outflows from spot ETFs. By Monday the token had clawed back above $1,664 — up over 3% on the day — but the damage was done. The real story, though, isn't just the slide. It's what the big wallets did while everyone else panicked.
Whale Activity at the Lows
One early Ethereum investor — a so-called OG — sold 60,000 ETH near $2,040 before the crash, along with 600 WBTC and 9,442 wstETH. Then, after prices cratered, they turned around and bought back 60,088 ETH, 10,000 wstETH, and 611 WBTC at a steep discount. That's a textbook trade, but it's also a sign of how quickly capital moved during the rout.
Other wallets followed. A wallet linked to Chun Wang pulled 17,560 ETH — worth about $28.67 million — off Binance near the lows. Meanwhile, the Pando Rings hacker spent 10 million DAI to scoop up 6,243 ETH at $1,602 each. Not exactly the kind of buying you'd expect from someone who's supposed to be on the run.
Big Holders Are Accumulating
Wallets that hold between 1 million and 10 million ETH added roughly 290,000 ETH in the first week of June, pushing their collective balance to about 6.89 million ETH. That's a deliberate build-up. At the same time, addresses holding 10,000 to 100,000 ETH kept shrinking, down to about 26.87 million ETH. The smaller whales are selling; the bigger ones are buying.
Exchange Reserves Keep Falling
That accumulation is showing up on the order books. Exchange reserves on Binance, OKX, Gemini, and Bitfinex fell by about 475,000 ETH in early June. Binance alone shed roughly 190,000 ETH between June 4 and June 7. Analyst Amr Taha noted that if this trend keeps up and spot demand eventually improves, available ETH liquidity on centralized platforms will get tighter. That could mean bigger price swings the next time a big buyer shows up.
For now, the big question is whether the buying pressure from whales and the continued outflow from exchanges can stabilize price above $1,600. The next few sessions will tell.
