An Ethereum (ETH) Initial Coin Offering (ICO) participant recently sold 3,000 ETH, valued at $7.64 million. This sale occurred today at 10 AM UTC and follows a previous sell-off of 7,000 ETH ($24.28 million) on July 1, which resulted in a 15% drop in the cryptocurrency’s price.
This whale originally received 254,908 ETH during the ICO, paying an initial cost of $79,000. Today, that ETH is valued at $646 million, with the whale still holding 37,070 ETH ($93.8 million), according to Lookonchain.
Ether’s price currently stands at $2,521.30, having declined 9.6% from October 20 to October 23. This downturn erased the gains from the previous 10 days, with ETH now stabilizing near $2,500. Over the past 30 days, the cryptocurrency’s price performance has been negative, dropping by 6%.
The chances of ETH reclaiming the $2,800 support level are diminishing. Onchain data suggests that high transaction fees are discouraging activity on the Ethereum network, reducing demand for ETH staking.
Over the same period, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization fell by 5%, contributing to Ethereum’s decline. However, the broader market has performed better than ETH, with a 1.9% increase over the past 30 days, highlighting ETH’s 8% underperformance.
Competing Networks Gaining Momentum
Ethereum’s network congestion and high transaction fees, averaging $4 over the past two weeks, have strengthened the appeal of lower-cost competing blockchains such as Solana. According to DefiLlama, Solana recorded $13.4 billion in transaction volume over the past week, 67% higher than Ethereum’s volume.
In the decentralized exchange (DEX) space, Ethereum’s performance has been weaker, with volumes on platforms like Uniswap and Curve Finance falling by 18%. Meanwhile, Solana-based DEXs Raydium and Lifinity saw substantial growth, with volume increases of 42% and 77%, respectively.
Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) has also decreased by 5%, with 18.2 million ETH currently locked. The number of staked ETH has similarly declined, with a net decrease of 191,000 ETH over the past month, valued at $492 million.
As Ethereum faces competition from other blockchains, the upcoming Prague-Electra upgrade, scheduled for 2025, aims to address scalability concerns. However, uncertainty remains about whether it will be enough to solve the network’s current issues.
