Why is ETH struggling near $2,100 even as whales accumulate?

ETH’s price has stabilised above $2,100 over the past few days, but risks declining as the bulls are suffering from exhaustion.

The near-term mild bearish bias comes despite Ethereum whales accelerating their accumulation of the top altcoin over the past few days.

The technical indicators also remain neutral, signalling exhaustion after the rally earlier this week.

Whales continue adding Ether to their wallets

Whales have increased their accumulation of Ether over the past few days.

Data obtained from Lookonchain revealed that several wallets have been withdrawing ETH from exchanges over the past 24 hours.

The analysis platform added that four whale wallets withdrew 64,763 ETH from Binance and Bitget on Tuesday.

Another wallet, suspected to be BitMine's, withdrew 67,111 ETH from Kraken. Some other key whales are opening long positions on ETH on Hyperliquid.

Furthermore, a similar trend is seen across wallets holding 10K-100K ETH, which saw an 850K ETH increase in their collective balance during the weekend.

The outflow from exchanges usually suggests that the whales are reducing their selling pressure on Ether and transferring the coins to their wallets for long-term holding in anticipation of a price increase.

While the whales are buying, retail investors or wallets holding 100-1K and 1K-10K ETH saw minimal changes in their balance over the past week.

This reduced selling pressure, in addition to whale accumulation, could signal a positive sentiment around Ether, potentially resulting in its price increase in the near to medium term.

However, institutional interest in Ethereum ETFs is declining.

According to CoinGlass, US spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are on a five-day outflow streak.

Ethereum price forecast

The ETH/USD 4-hour chart is bullish and efficient as Ether has performed positively since the start of the month.

At press time, ETH is trading at $2,150, with its near-term bias mildly bearish.

It is currently trading above the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) near $2,120 and could retest the Inducement Liquidity (ILQ) at $2,092 over the next few hours or days.

The mild-bearish bias comes after Ether failed to take out its 50-day EMA above $2,190 once again, signalling a weakening bullish momentum.

The 100-day EMA near $2,455 also presented a tough challenge for the bulls in recent weeks.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) around 53 confirms modest upside pressure rather than overbought conditions.

Furthermore, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence remains below the neutral zone, suggesting a consolidation phase rather than an outright reversal lower.

If the bulls fail to bounce back, Ether would encounter its first support at the ILQ of $2,092, below its 20-day EMA.

An extended bearish run would expose the secondary support at $1,741, resulting in massive long liquidations.

A sustained break below $2,092 would expose that lower band and undermine the emerging bullish bias.

However, if the rally resumes, Ether would push towards the 50-day EMA, followed by hurdles near $2,390 and $2,746.

If the daily candle closes above $2,390, the rally could extend toward that higher resistance band and signal an extension of the current recovery leg.