ETH Price Has Been Moving Sideways Since Tuesday Last Week, But It Has Finally Picked a Side.

ETH price has been moving sideways since Tuesday last week, but it has finally picked a side. It has finally picked a side.

ETH price has been trading in a sideways range since Tuesday last week, but it seems like the crypto has finally picked a side - and it's up.

The Ethereum native coin has recovered back above the $2,000 mark this week.

The ETH price dip below $2,000 underscored the declining market sentiment. This was further exasperated by weak demand which resulted in a longer than anticipated stay below this key level.

ETH exchanged hands at $2,021 at press time after a 4.54% upside in the last 24 hours.

ETH’s MACD indicator highlighted the demand build-up this week. Its histogram highlighted a surge of bullish volumes since Monday, while the MACD line recently crossed above the signal line. But, can ETH sustain this trend and achieve more vertical?

ETH Whales are Contributing to the Latest Bullish Momentum

On-chain data reveals that the Ethereumnative coin's latest bullish momentum could be rooted in whale activity.

Large holder flows bounced back sharply since mid-March. Large holder inflows bounced from 197,370 ETH on 16 March to 910,810 ETH as of 18 March.

Meanwhile, large holder outflows also surged from198,960 ETH to 438,360 coins during the same period.

The large holder net flows amounted to about 480,450 coins as of Tuesday. This means large holder netflows amounted to almost $1 billion worth of demand.

This was also the highest positive ETH netflows observed in the last 3 months. This whale activity also coincided with a mid-month uptick in exchange flows.

Exchange outflows were slightly higher at 524,570 coins compared to 499,347 coins in exchange inflows according to CryptoQuant.

The higher exchange outflows compared to inflows confirms that demand has been building up in tandem with whale activity.

However, it is worth noting that the rate of accumulation remained relatively low.

Can ETH Price Maintain the Bullish Momentum?

Although ETH price appears to be experiencing some excitement, on-chain data also revealed that it has primarily been coming from the derivatives segment.

For context, open interest was up 11.09% in the last 24 hours while volume rallied by 53.48%.

Options volumes in particular were up by 88.24% and shorts have emerged as the losers with roughly $62.72 million in shorts liquidated.

Interestingly, ETH spot flows remained negative despite the latest upside. The cryptocurrency recorded roughly $34.03 million in spot outflows in the last 24 hours, building on the $24 million in outflows observed on Tuesday.

The divergence between spot and derivatives market activity relating to ETH could potentially signal that retail activity in the spot segment is not yet there.

Perhaps a reflection of the uncertain market conditions.

It could also signal that this latest upside is a temporally move through which whales might be on the hunt for short term profit-taking.

The spot outflows suggest that profit-taking is already taking place. ETH price action may struggle to push higher in the short term if it fails to sustain the current demand.