Ethereum rose 2% as spot ETFs recorded $250M in weekly inflows after weeks of outflows. Whales accumulated 800,000 ETH worth $2.4B near $3,100 support.
Ethereum's 1-2% gain over the past 24 hours reflects a confluence of resumed institutional ETF buying, highly visible whale accumulation in the $3,000-$3,100 range, and improved order flow dynamics that have shifted the technical picture from one-way selling to defended support, all against a macro backdrop where the Fed's rate cut and quiet liquidity injection favor high-duration risk assets.
Ethereum News: Institutional Flows And Whale Positioning Lift Ethereum From Support
ETF Buyers Return After Weeks Of Outflows
The clearest Ethereum-specific catalyst is the reversal in spot ETF flows. Multiple analyses note that spot Ethereum ETFs saw more than $250 million in net inflows this week after weeks of persistent outflows, with institutional demand described as "remaining firm" despite recent volatility. On Wednesday alone, Ethereum ETFs recorded roughly $57.6 million of inflows, with BlackRock responsible for approximately $56.5 million of that total, all while ETH was in a corrective phase.
The broader ETF footprint tells the same story. ETH spot ETF assets under management have risen from about $17.8 billion a week ago to roughly $19.4 billion now, an increase of about $1.6 billion over seven days. That is not parabolic, but the direction of travel has turned positive after a rough patch. Social and desk commentary picked up the shift quickly, with Voyager's team summarizing it simply: "$ETH spot ETF inflows are ticking up. The reversal ends weeks of outflows, suggesting fresh institutional demand following Fed policy shifts and Fusaka."
ETF issuers have to own real ETH, so when flows flip positive after a period of outflows, you get incremental spot demand plus a psychological shift from "institutions are exiting" toward "they are quietly adding on dips," which makes short-term bottoms more credible. The article frames the $3,000-$3,100 band as a key "decision zone" where ETF issuance and large holders are steadily absorbing supply.
Whales Build Nine-Figure Long Positions And Accumulate Spot
The second clear cluster of drivers is the behavior of very large ETH holders, both in derivatives and on spot. One well-known trader, referred to as "BitcoinOG," has built a leveraged long position of about 120,094 ETH, worth roughly $392.5 million, with a liquidation level down near $2,234. This is framed as a high-conviction bullish bet, positioned well below current price, and aligned with broader accumulation by big ETH treasuries.
A separate, widely circulated breakdown from HyperInsight tracks another whale nicknamed "Maji," who is long about 140,094 ETH (roughly $454 million) with an average entry near $3,179. He reportedly added 20,000 ETH in the last 13 hours, and his unrealized profits moved into the multi-million dollar range as price bounced. Screenshots of this position have been making the rounds on X.
On the spot side, accumulation patterns are equally aggressive. Tom Lee's BitMine Immersion Technologies added 33,504 ETH worth about $112 million via FalconX in a single day as part of its long-stated strategy to hold about 5% of total ETH supply. Another on-chain overview estimates that wallets holding between 10,000 and 100,000 ETH have accumulated over 800,000 ETH in the last 30 days, about $2.4 billion at an average price of $3,105. This accumulation persisted even when ETH dipped toward $2,600, suggesting that large holders have been "buying the dip" rather than cutting exposure.
As ETH revisited the $3,100 area, very visible whales were not bailing but rather leveraging long or adding spot, and in some cases broadcasting that positioning publicly. When the tape shows higher lows and you also see large, named players committing nine-figure capital on the long side, dips around those levels tend to be defended more aggressively, making it easier for modest demand to nudge price higher over a 24-hour window.
Order Flow And Technical Structure Shift From Selling To Balanced
Technical and order-flow metrics for ETH have improved in a way that lines up with the recent bounce. Net taker volume on major venues such as Binance has climbed from about negative $500 million in late October to around negative $138 million now. It is still negative, but the trend is toward less aggressive selling and more willing buyers, with analysts pointing out that similar improvements have preceded prior rallies, describing the latest read as "flashing signals eerily similar to the 2025 pre-rally setup."
A number of technical strategists see what they call a "bullish divergence" on ETH's chart, with a proprietary divergence model triggering for the first time in a month and a stated historical pattern of 9-16% moves when it appears. Support and resistance mapping from several desks places heavy spot accumulation between about $3,150 and $3,180, and another big cluster around $2,800, with millions of ETH bought in each zone. One widely shared Wyckoff-style read calls the $3,000-$3,100 range the "primary decision zone" and highlights 2.8 million ETH accumulated just above $3,150 and 3.6 million ETH around $2,800. After dropping off the $3,400-$3,450 area and briefly spiking below $3,250, buyers stepped in near $3,150, with a new short-term bullish trend line forming around $3,180 on intraday charts.
The order-flow picture has shifted from very heavy, aggressive selling to more balanced flows, with bulls defending known support zones. That does not guarantee a big rally, but it does make a 1-2% drift higher over 24 hours more natural than another cascade lower, especially once macro news stopped getting worse.
Network Upgrades And Macro Pivot Support The Broader Case
Network-level metrics and the recent upgrade path contribute to the sense that current levels are attractive. A recent deep dive points out that Ethereum transaction fees have fallen to their lowest levels in roughly seven years, largely thanks to rollups and recent upgrades, and argues that ETH is acting as the "preferred high-duration asset" in crypto in response to the Fed's rate cut. The same analysis emphasizes network improvements such as PeerDAS (EIP-7594), which can unlock up to 8x data throughput for rollups by making blob space more efficient, while another upgrade, BPO-1, has already raised blob capacity to 15 per block without a hard fork, with a follow-up BPO-2 scheduled to expand it further in January.
While price has been choppy, the underlying execution environment for L2s and DeFi is quietly improving. Lower fees and higher capacity are exactly what you would want to see if you are buying ETH as a "platform bet" on future activity. In a macro environment where the cost of capital is falling, assets that combine growth exposure with improving underlying economics tend to draw incremental capital.
The macro picture is almost identical to what is supporting Bitcoin, but it interacts with ETH a bit differently. The Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 basis points and announced a new Treasury-buying program that many analysts frame as a quiet liquidity injection, with one detailed piece arguing that, in the immediate aftermath, Ethereum has been more responsive than Bitcoin. Broad crypto metrics show derivatives open interest up about 5% over 24 hours and funding rates modestly positive, suggesting a cautious shift back into risk, not an overcrowded FOMO long. Social data for ETH over the last 24 hours puts net sentiment essentially at neutral, around 5.05 on a 0-10 scale, with most of the influential posts focusing on whale positioning, ETF flows, and rotation across majors.
Forces Converge On Defended Support
Over this 24-hour window, the positive move in Ethereum comes from several overlapping forces: spot ETH ETFs and major institutions flipping from net sellers to steady buyers, high-profile whales openly building large long positions and adding on dips while broader whale cohorts quietly accumulate, taker flows and technical divergences shifting from one-way selling to a more balanced structure, and a macro backdrop where Fed cuts and creeping liquidity favor high-duration assets while Ethereum's own upgrades and lower fees strengthen its case as a leveraged play on that environment.
