Maelstrom CIO Arthur Hayes has bought his altcoin holdings, beginning with Ethereum. He dumped 6,400 ETH price $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 price of altcoins. Defending his transfer, the crypto investor mentioned,
I dumped it all. The Maelstrom directional ebook took earnings on ETH, ENA, UNI, and different shitcoins. I believe we gotta go all the way down to go up. It seems to be 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 transferring 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 beneath bearish strain
First, ETH has been essentially 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 file 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 could 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 bought over $8M price 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 may 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 provision each week. Without Bitmine and the ETF continued promote-off, it will change into one other strain issue.
Perhaps one of many constructive catalysts is the file staking demand for ETH. Unfortunately, this additionally means new issuance rewards to stakers, which provides to the provision in the primary place.
Can Ethereum bulls defend $2,300?
Taken collectively, if the macro and geopolitical backdrop doesn’t enhance, additional draw back danger could possibly be probably. If so, dropping $2,364 may 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 current 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 some other crypto asset.
