Quick take:
The amount of Ethereum sitting on crypto exchanges has been known to be declining for quite some time. Initially, investors were moving their Ethereum away from crypto exchanges and into DeFi protocols to participate in yield farming.
Currently, the same Ethereum investors are moving their ETH out of crypto exchanges and onto offline wallets as the digital asset hints of a pending bullish phase that could see it set a new all-time high.
This fact was identified by the team at Santiment via the following statement and accompanying chart.
The ratio of #Ethereum tokens sitting on exchanges continues to decrease & move to offline holder wallets. At just 22.06% of tokens on exchanges compared to 26.33% five months ago, this continues to be one of the most promising signs for $ETH bulls.
From the chart, it can be observed that the last time there was an exodus of this magnitude of Ethereum away from exchanges, was in November 2018. The latter time period was when Bitcoin dipped to $3,150 and Ethereum fell to as low as $80. Both digital assets would go on to peak in June 2019 at a value of $14k and $366 respectively.
With the CME Ethereum futures contracts set to launch on February 8th this year, ETH investors could very well be prepping for a similar bullish climb to a new all-time high.
To note is that Bitcoin is currently in a bull market brought about by last year’s halving event and the influx of institutional investors who want to hedge against inflation. Since Ethereum’s fate is tied to that of Bitcoin, a BTC bull cycle will provide an adequate environment needed for ETH to thrive in the weeks and months to follow.