The steady appreciation in the Ethereum price continues to mirror how resilient the cryptocurrency has become in the market. Despite the waves of skepticism experienced in the past, there seems to have been a recent major shift in investor behavior, which shows a level of optimism in the potential growth of the Ether token.
Ethereum Netflow Across Exchanges Consistently Negative
In a September 13 post on social media platform X, on-chain analyst Darkfost revealed how Ethereum’s investors have been acting behind the scenes over the past few months.
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According to Darkfost, there has been a major shift in investor behavior since Ethereum’s last price drop from $4,000 to $1,500. At the time, the prevailing investor mood was fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) — emotions which did not play so much of a role in affecting the long-term activity of investors.
Darkfost reported that the netflow across all exchanges has been “consistently negative” since the major Ethereum price drop; this means that more ETH is leaving exchanges than they are being deposited.
According to the on-chain analyst, around 56,000 ETH is being withdrawn daily over an average of 30 days. Interestingly, this figure has not been seen since the depths of the last bear market.
Recently, there have been days when more than 400,000 ETH were withdrawn. What is more interesting is that the exchange netflows have not turned positive since July.
As earlier inferred, this trend of token movement represents a shift in the holding behavior of Ethereum investors, as they move their assets off trading platforms to non-custodial wallets for long-term storage. Ultimately, this suggests that holders are becoming increasingly confident in the ETH’s long-term promise.
As of this writing, the Ether token is valued at around $4,660, reflecting no significant price change in the past 24 hours. According to data from CoinGecko, the price of Ethereum has increased by almost 10% in the past seven days.
BTC And ETH Reserves Drop 23% And 20% Respectively
In a separate post, Darkfost analyzed the Bitcoin and Ethereum Exchange Reserve metrics across all exchanges and estimated how much of these cryptocurrencies have left exchanges in 2025.
According to the online pundit, Bitcoin reserves across all exchanges have dropped by almost a quarter of their total holdings since the year’s beginning. The BTC exchange reserves have dipped by 23% to about 2.47 million BTC from 3.05 million BTC as of January 1, 2025.
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Ethereum exchange reserves, on the other hand, did not immediately start to decline until the month of May. As mentioned in the earlier post, ETH supply on exchanges began to fall following a reversal triggered by its fall to below $1,500. Over the last four months, Ethereum reserves have fallen to 17.1 million from 20.6 million, representing a 20% decline.
A significant decline in exchange reserves is often interpreted as a sign of accumulation among investors. This trend could be a bullish catalyst for the two largest cryptocurrencies, especially Ethereum, considering that the coin movement started more recently.
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView