Ethereum Whales Dump 500K ETH as Dominance Crashes to 5-Year Low

9 hours ago 18

April 5, 2025 by Sadia Ali

Key Takeaways:

Whales have offloaded over 500,000 ETH in the past 48 hours, intensifying selling pressure.
ETH’s dominance has plunged to 8%, marking a 60% drop since mid-2023.
Record-low fees and burn rates post-Dencun upgrade have worsened ETH’s inflation problem.

Ethereum’s recent price movement may seem calm on the surface, but a deeper look reveals rising undercurrents. In the last 48 hours, top market observer Ali drew attention to a major selloff by a big investor, with over 500,000 ETH being unloaded, according to data on-chain by Santiment.

This precipitant offloading places significant stress on the asset, which already suffers from systemic issues. Even as ETH prices ticked up briefly by 1.55% over the past four hours to $1,797.07, the context is alarming.

This short-term rebound does little to counteract the long-term downtrend in Ethereum, especially if big players are selling out. Although short-term rallies tend to mask structural issues beneath the surface, Ethereum’s are already beginning to manifest in the figures.

Ethereum Network Activity Crash Triggers Inflation Spiral

CryptoQuant’s recent analysis reflects Ethereum’s underlying issue: diminishing network usefulness. From the start of 2025, the active count of addresses on the Ethereum network has been continuously declining.

That decrease in user involvement has been a contributing cause to transaction fees and block rewards hitting historical lows, a trend that undermines the very inflation-dampening mechanism that Ethereum depends on.

Dencun upgrade, previously touted as a game-changer, seems instead to have accelerated the problem. Crash in average fees caused the burn rate of Ethereum to hit a since-the-Merge low, with new issuance surpassing destruction.

What this does is create a net inflationary environment, watering down the worth of ETH over the long run. In short, Ethereum’s producing more than it’s burning, a potentially disastrous trend for any asset intended to appreciate in value.

ETH Dominance Collapse Signals a Market Turning Point

Rekt Capital’s recent analysis indicates a precipitous fall in ETH’s dominance from a June 2023 level of 20% to a current level of just 8%. That’s a collapse of 60% in a little over one year. ETH Dominance is the proportionate weighting of the total crypto market cap minus Bitcoin, and the fall presents a bleak image of diminishing confidence in the market.

The chart, shared on April 4, indicates that Ethereum is back in a familiar historical support zone (7.5%–10%) last tested in 2019 and 2020. In both cases, ETH managed to reverse its fortunes.

But the current context is more complicated: Bitcoin dominance increased to 62%, and Ethereum dropped by 44% in Q1 2025. Layer-2 congestion, increasing regulatory friction, and diminished investor interest all contribute to this long-standing weakness.

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