In accordance with a blockchain analytics company, sharks and whales have dumped Ethereum worth $4.2 billion. As a result of dumping, ETH's value has decreased in relation to Bitcoin during this period.
In the weeks preceding the dumping, ETH whales and sharks accumulated 2.2 million ETH, resulting in an increase of 43.3% in the ETH/BTC ratio. There has been a 12.7% drop in the ETH/BTC ratio since the massive sales began in the last five weeks.
Source: Santiment
Allegations of price manipulation against Ethereum whales
An analyst at CryptoQuant wrote earlier in the month that whales were manipulating the market. In the opinion of the analyst, ETH whales sent their holdings to exchanges in order to increase the value of ETH and sell it at a higher price.
The manipulation of prices, however, is clearly insufficient to have a significant impact on the long-term market. Recent selling activity by whales and sharks prevented the asset from rising.
ETH Price Remains Steady Despite Deflation
In the wake of its migration to a proof-of-stake network, Ethereum has become deflationary for the first time in its history.
A possible cause for the deflation could be the launch of a new crypto project, XEN crypto, which required minting and temporarily increased network activity. Data shows that XEN Crypto alone has burned 3527 ETH, which is more than twice the amount burned by Uniswap, the leading DeFi protocol.
As of press time, 6,850 ETH have been traded since the Merge. Over 370,000 Ethereum would have been added if the asset were still running a proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
Ethereum Supply Simulation with PoW (Source: Ultrasound.money)
Price Prediction for Ethereum: Still struggling to surpass $1,500
Since the completion of the merge, the price of ETH has fluctuated. In the last 30 days, the asset's value has decreased by more than 9%. Ethereum's price value dropped from $1,600 to $1,386 during this period. Over the same period, BTC only decreased by 3.14%.