While steadily falling prices have dominated virtually all the headlines over the past month, Ethereum ($ETH) Supply on exchanges has also fallen to levels not seen since mid-2016.
Specifically, the total supply of Ethereum on cryptocurrency exchanges has reached 16 million. $ETH According to available data, February 9th cryptoquantthe asset itself was trading around $2,000, but was down 34% on the monthly chart.
The drawdown has been gradual rather than a sudden decline, indicating a sustained shift in how holders are positioning their assets. Notably, the data shows that reserves continue to decline. $ETH Prices have pulled back.
This suggests that withdrawals are not driven by short-term price movements, but by long-term holding behavior. Similarly, you should also note the following: $ETH We do not sell replacement items. Instead, we are witnessing large batches of investor ownership being moved into self-custody, staking, or backup holdings.
Ethereum supply on exchanges decreases
Out of 16 million $ETH According to the same data, there are currently 7.4 million trades available on crypto trading platforms on spot exchanges and 8.5 million trades on derivatives exchanges.
Binance remains the largest holding with 3.58 million $ETHTo be precise, this figure also shows an overall negative trend, since it was last recorded in September 2024. $ETHwhich is also noteworthy considering that it boasted nearly 3.7 million. $ETH Fast forward to May 2025.
Balance tightening affects liquidity and price formation. This means that when fewer tokens are readily available on a trading platform, a noticeable increase in demand can lead to sharper and faster price movements.
However, declines in foreign exchange reserves during periods of price stress have historically shown that selling pressures are being absorbed rather than intensified. In other words, rather than moving $ETH While selling to exchanges to exploit weaknesses, holders appear to be doing the opposite by pulling Ethereum away from trading venues.
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