Whale Opens $44M ETH Short as Traders Buy the Dip

A large Ethereum holder opened a 21,948 ETH short, equal to about $44 million, near $2,004 using roughly 10x isolated leverage. The position showed a reported liquidation mark near $2,339.76.

Hours later, a separate wallet that had acquired about 5,003 ETH near $1,999 across March and April moved roughly 5,000 ETH, about $9.8 million, into Kraken as prices fell toward $1,960. Transfers to exchanges often precede sell orders.

On-chain supply data from Santiment recorded whale-held ETH outside exchanges falling from 125.02 million ETH on June 1 to 124.98 million on June 2.

Derivatives data show an asymmetric leverage book. Coinglass’s seven-day liquidation map for the Binance ETH/USDT perpetual displayed roughly $1.82 billion in cumulative short liquidation exposure stacked above price, compared with about $781.93 million on the long side. Around the $1,930 level, approximately $523.96 million of long leverage was positioned close to liquidation levels.

Flow data tracked by Hyperliquid indicated that after a firm disclosed a Bitcoin sale, Bitcoin saw about $15.61 million of net selling pressure while Ethereum attracted about $9.10 million of net buying over the same six-hour window.

Ethereum’s price has fallen more than 13% month-on-month and traded near the $2,000 psychological level during the session. Market participants are monitoring on-chain transfers to exchanges, the placement and size of leverage in perpetual books, and whether the recent net buying activity expands.