Top ETH addresses are aggressively accumulating ETH, while on-chain withdrawal activity is hitting multi-year lows, What’s There?
Key Points:
- Whales’ moves align with the broader DeFi market.
- Withdrawal transactions hit yearly lows.
- Deposits and lending activity have dropped, suggesting reduced retail and DeFi participation.
A curious trend has emerged for Ethereum (ETH): As top ETH addresses are aggressively accumulating ETH, on-chain withdrawal activity is hitting multi-year lows. Conventionally, increased withdrawal activity is viewed as a sign of investor confidence, indicating that users are moving ETH off exchanges for long-term holding and reducing immediate selling pressure.
However, despite significant accumulation by top ETH addresses, current on-chain data reflects a contrasting trend of declining withdrawals. This divergence raises a crucial question: if big players are accumulating, why aren’t withdrawals increasing?
Nonetheless, the above chart only shows supply held by top addresses, which includes exchanges as well. Upon taking a closer look at Whales’ activity, we see a different picture. Whale-held ETH has dropped from over 104M to 100.8M since late May, signaling reduced exposure. This shift may reflect profit-taking or caution, potentially adding short-term pressure to ETH’s price.
Withdrawal Transactions Continue to Decline
Since late 2023, both deposits and withdrawals on exchanges have dwindled. The red bars, representing active deposits, have dropped to their lowest levels since 2020, hovering around 6.5K ETH as of June 19, 2025. This isn’t just a slowdown, it’s a near-halt, suggesting retail traders are either too scared, uncertain, or simply uninterested to move ETH onto exchanges.
While decreased withdrawals suggest whales may already be positioned or accumulating off-exchanges. This quiet phase mirrors past accumulation periods, where whales stack as retail stays sidelined.
DeFi Activities Face Decline?
Ethereum users are becoming increasingly cautious with how they deploy their ETH. The amount of ETH locked in DeFi lending protocols has dropped to just 152K, a multi-year low, signaling weak demand for borrowing and lending, likely due to low yields and risk-off sentiment.
Meanwhile, ETH held in bridges surged through early 2024 as users explored cross-chain opportunities, but has recently declined from over 3.5M to 2.74M, hinting at shifting sentiment or reduced activity across other chains.
The dual decline, especially lending, implies users are being more cautious, holding ETH instead of putting it to work. This often happens during uncertain market conditions or when better opportunities are elsewhere.
Conclusion
While exchange wallets have steadily increased their ETH holding, suggesting growing institutional or platform-driven accumulation, whale addresses (excluding exchanges) have shown a recent downturn in holdings.
This divergence hints at a shift in accumulation behavior, possibly from individual large holders to centralized entities or custodians. Combined with a slowdown in DeFi activity and declining withdrawals.
Together, these signals point to an uncertain period where whales appear cautious, and retail engagement in DeFi continues to fade, leaving Ethereum in a phase with no clear near-term catalyst.
