Ethereum’s Biggest Holders Just Sold $880 Million Worth – Key Support Breaks

Ethereum (ETH) closed the week under pressure and carried those losses into Saturday, slipping 1.6% to around $1,566 according to CoinGecko data. The second-largest cryptocurrency now sits 68% below its all-time high — and the data behind the move points to one clear culprit. 

Behind the move is a combination of broad market weakness, persistent bearish sentiment, and a week of unusually heavy selling from ETH’s largest holders.

The Downside Targets Are Ugly

Technical analyst Ali Martinez flagged the scale of that selling in a post on X (formerly twitter). Large-scale holders offloaded roughly 550,000 ETH over the past seven days, injecting approximately $880 million in sell-side supply into the market in a single week, and the charts are reflecting it.

Ethereum has broken below its immediate support floor at $1,633, a level that had been holding the price steady. The market is now testing what Martinez described as critical volume support at $1,583 — a level where a significant number of tokens previously changed hands and where buyers have historically stepped in. 

ETH WHALES SELL $880 MILLION IN ONE WEEK

Large-scale holders have offloaded roughly 550,000 ETH over the past week, injecting $880 million in sell-side supply into the market.

This heavy selling volume has successfully pushed Ethereum below its immediate $1,633 support floor.… https://t.co/2n4rVK4oTK pic.twitter.com/7g1zSPepez

— Ali Charts (@alicharts) June 28, 2026

Failing to hold that baseline, Martinez warned, opens a clear path for extended liquidations — a scenario where falling prices force leveraged traders to sell, accelerating the decline further.

If the distribution continues into next week, Martinez said the next meaningful demand zones sit considerably lower — at $1,237 first, and potentially as deep as $1,089. 

Those targets would represent substantial additional losses from current levels and would put Ethereum at prices not seen since the depths of the 2022 bear market. However, not everyone sees the current environment as purely negative. 

The Bull Case For Ethereum Right Now 

Market expert Michaël van de Poppe offered a contrasting read in a post on X on Friday, describing anything below $1,800 on ETH as “a massive opportunity.” 

Van de Poppe acknowledged the downtrend is real and visible on the weekly chart, but argued that the same is showing a potential strong bullish divergence — a technical signal where price keeps falling but underlying momentum indicators start turning upward, often preceding a reversal.

His broader view is that the current weakness is at least partly manufactured by the market around a known catalyst. He pointed to the CLARITY Act, the landmark US crypto market structure legislation currently moving through the Senate, as the event the market is trading around. 

“The CLARITY Act approval is around the corner,” van de Poppe wrote, “and this entire event is being used as a negative instrument for the markets to continue to fall.” He described the pattern as a classic sell-the-rumor, buy-the-news setup — where prices decline in anticipation of an event before reversing sharply once it arrives.

Van de Poppe identified two specific levels he considers strong accumulation zones if Ethereum reaches them — below $1,505 and below $1,385. But he stopped short of predicting things would go that far. 

“I don’t think the markets are eager to go down more,” he said, pointing to early signs of strength in other decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens like Aave (AAVE) as evidence that a rotation may already be underway. His preferred scenario is a clean breakout above $1,800 rather than a deeper flush — and he views current prices as an opportunity to build positions rather than reduce them.

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