Ethereum investors withdrew $978 million from centralized exchanges over the past week as the cryptocurrency declined to $2,780, indicating potential accumulation activity during the price dip. The outflows coincided with a 15% decline in network transaction fees to $2.64 million, suggesting reduced transfer activity despite investor buying interest.

What Happened: Exchange Withdrawals

Sentora, an institutional DeFi solutions provider, reported the negative exchange netflow data in a Dec. 19 post on X. The metric measures the net amount of tokens moving into or out of wallets connected with centralized exchanges.

Negative values indicate outflows are dominating inflows, which typically signals accumulation phases.

Positive values suggest investors are depositing tokens for selling purposes.

The withdrawals occurred as Ethereum declined during the past week, with the cryptocurrency briefly falling to $2,780 on Thursday before recovering to trade just under $3,000.

According to Sentora, the pattern "signals aggressive accumulation where investors are likely 'buying the dip' and withdrawing assets to cold storage or on-chain environments, tightening the liquid supply despite the negative price momentum."

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Why It Matters: Support Levels

Analyst Ali Martinez shared on-chain data from Glassnode showing Ethereum's UTXO Realized Price Distribution indicates a significant supply cluster at $2,772. The metric tracks how much supply was last transacted at various price levels throughout the cryptocurrency's history.

Large supply zones typically function as support boundaries during downtrends, as traders who purchased at those levels often buy additional tokens to defend their positions.

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