Amount of Ether Held on Centralized Exchanges Has Dropped to a Nine-Year Low

This data cited by PANews also highlights a significant trend of investors moving their ETH holdings off exchanges and into cold storage

The amount of Ether (ETH) held on centralized exchanges has dropped to a nine-year low of 8.97 million tokens, a level that has not been seen since November 2015, according to data from CryptoRank, Santiment and cited by PANews.

This trend signals that investors are moving their ETH holdings off exchanges and into cold storage, which in turn would reduce the liquidity available for trading.

This decline in exchange reserves is similar to the trend that was observed for Bitcoin (BTC) in the beginning of the year. In January, BTC exchange reserves hit a seven-year low, which was then followed by a sharp price surge.

Currently, Ethereum is trading at $2,097.87 with a surge of 4.0% in the last 24 hours as per CoinGecko. The broader cryptocurrency market has also seen an increased accumulation by long-term holders and institutional investors, further reducing the circulating supply of major assets like ETH and BTC.

From the historical data, it can be seen that reduced supply on exchanges has been associated with potential price increases due to a possibility of “supply shock.” This hoarding causes there to be a decrease in the supply of the tokens, an increase in the demand of tokens and the prices rises eventually. If Ethereum follows the same trajectory as Bitcoin, a significant price rally could be over the horizon.

The shift away from centralized exchanges suggest a change in the behavior of the investors. Majority of them are actually opting for a long-term storage solutions, such as hardware wallets, signaling confidence in Ethereum’s future value. Additionally, Ethereum’s total supply stands at around 120.64 million tokens as of March 2025.

With such situations, the market observers will be closely monitoring these developments and will be on the lookout for potential supply-driven price surge in Ethereum. For now, the declining exchange reserves indicates a growing confidence in holding ETH as a long-term assets rather than using it for active trading.