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Volatility is firmly on the radar as non-exchange balances suddenly decline by 700,000 ETH within just three days and resistance topples.
Major investors in the biggest altcoin Ether (ETH) likely moved almost $200 million to exchanges in a fresh hint that price volatility will now hit.Data from on-chain analytics resource Santiment on July 23 suggested that 700,000 ETH ($182.7 million) made its way to exchange wallets in just three days this week.ETH transfers “forewarning of the pump”The movements coincided with known non-exchange wallet balances declining by roughly that figure, implying that whales were preparing to sell or trade ETH en masse.“Nearly 700K $ETH were moved by top 100 whales in the past 3 days. Over this time, the combined balance of the top 100 non-exchange ETH addresses shrank by almost 700K ETH, or about ~$182.7M,” Santiment added in comments on Twitter. “This was likely pre-pump positioning & a forewarning of the pump.”Top Ether holder balance changes. Source: Santiment/ TwitterETH/BTC has seen renewed interest throughout the past weeks, fuelled by the DeFi token phenomenon which uses the ERC-20 protocol for transactions. Ethereum 2.0, the long-term protocol upgrade of Ether’s parent network, is set to launch its final testnet in early August.Two later upticks in the price of Bitcoin this week had a further knock-on effect on Ether, with 24-hour gains totaling 7.8% at press time on Thursday — far ahead of Bitcoin’s 1.7%.Previously, Cointelegraph forecast that fresh bullish action for ETH would continue, should resistance be overcome at $250.“Ether’s (ETH) up-move on July 21 has carried it close to the overhead resistance zone of $249.195–$253.556. If the bulls can propel the price above the zone, the next leg of the uptrend is likely to resume,” analyst Rakesh Upadhyay wrote.Van de Poppe: ETH is “undervalued”Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe had similar thoughts.“The total market cap of crypto will break out (most likely) upwards,” he tweeted.“That’s not going to be through $BTC. That’s going to be through $ETH. As $ETH is very undervalued.”Cryptocurrency traders have slowly eased their bearish outlook on the market given that Bitcoin, in particular, has regained some long-lost ground.A rise to $9,400 on Tuesday saw BTC/USD hold levels at around $9,350, before a fresh march towards resistance closer to $10,000. Van de Poppe remains confident that the market has the strength to hit five figures.