By Tom Blitzer
Key Insights:
- There’s a notable drop in ETH reserves on top exchanges, including Coinbase and Gemini.
- Despite the overall reserve decline, Binance has emerged as the largest ETH holder.
- Despite dwindling reserves, the ETH market performance remains resilient.
In an intriguing development, data from the renowned on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant reveals a significant slump in Ethereum (ETH) reserves held by the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges over the last few years. This trend contrasts sharply with the robust accumulation of Bitcoin (BTC) in anticipation of the upcoming 2024 halving event.
A Snapshot of the ETH Reserve Landscape
In April 2021, the crypto community recognized Coinbase, Binance, and Gemini as the top three exchanges holding the largest ETH reserves. Astonishingly, their collective ETH holdings totaled a massive 50 billion ETH, with Coinbase leading the pack at 24.9 billion ETH. Binance and Gemini followed suit, holding 14.5 billion and 11.6 billion ETH, respectively.
However, recent statistics from May 2023 indicate a considerable shift in this landscape. Binance emerged as the top holder, with an ETH reserve of 16.6 billion. Consequently, Coinbase, which once held the crown, witnessed a dramatic plunge in its ETH reserves, which dwindled to 12.6 billion – approximately half of what it had two years ago.
Gemini Drops from the Top 3 ETH Holders
Moreover, Gemini’s ETH reserves didn’t escape this downward trend. From a substantial holding of over 11 billion ETH in 2021, Gemini’s ETH reserves fell drastically to only 3 billion in 2023. Hence, the exchange dropped from its previous position as the 3rd largest ETH holder to 6th, as per CryptoQuant’s report.
Significantly, the decline in ETH reserves on these exchanges comes amidst an overall positive market sentiment. Most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, including ETH, were trading in the green at the time of writing.
According to CoinMarketCap’s data, the current trading price of Ethereum (ETH) is approximately $1,953.74. Over the past day, the price of Ethereum (ETH) has experienced a slight increase of around 0.38%. As a result, the market trend of ETH seems to favor its 24-hour low of $1,947.36 rather than reaching its daily high of $1,974.78.
The recent price uptick also pushed the altcoin’s weekly performance further into the green, with a gain of +4.54%.