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Will the ETH Price Recovery Sustain?
In the last 24 hours, Ethereum dropped 1.16% to exchange hands at $3,164. Before heavy liquidations, the leading altcoin ticked almost all bullish boxes, trading near the $5k mark.
With increased inflows, bulls projected moving past the $5k milestone in December, rallying around other altcoins. These arguments were strengthened by ETF inflows and Ethereum treasury companies accumulating the asset to diversify their balance sheets.
However, recent investor headwinds stalled these gains, sparking offloads and movements to centralized exchanges. At the time of writing, the asset’s Binance trading volume has trumped its past high, creating a highly speculative market.
Traditionally, inflows to centralized exchanges indicate possible steps toward sales, while outflows to other custodians suggest longer-term holdings. However, Ethereum’s case is dicey because certain traders have kept their assets on the exchange for months, a move many describe as strategic.
 
After the anticipated altcoin season frenzy in January, the Ethereum price dipped before trading sideways for several months. Crypto commentators believe traders might be pricing in the right time to sell, which, on the one hand, could drive low sentiment.
On the other hand, these sales have yet to occur, and another rebound is on the cards, with the asset benefiting from spot market activities. Ethereum’s Binance volume is now above $6 trillion in 2025, almost three times higher than in previous years.
Experts at the on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant described the increased spot volume on Binance as highly speculative, which some retail traders consider a risky move. However, whales continue to accumulate assets at low prices, citing the need to reposition holdings ahead of an expected price uptick.
“ETH open interest has also reached historic levels, and again, Binance leads. In August 2025, open interest exceeded $12.5B on the platform, which becomes even more impressive when put in context. Altogether, this shows that the market is highly speculative on ETH this cycle, making its dynamics more fragile than when the spot market represented a larger share of activity. It also explains why the market behaves differently now and seems noticeably less stable,” CryptoQuant researchers added.