Ethereum balance on crypto exchanges falls to lowest levels since 2018

cointelegraph.com:

The amount of Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) kept with crypto exchanges has fallen to its lowest levels since September 2018, signaling traders' intention to hold the tokens in hopes of a price rally in 2022.

Notably, nearly 550,000 ETH tokens — worth around $1.61 billion — have left centralized trading platforms year-to-date, according to data provided by Glassnode. The massive outflow has reduced the exchanges' net Ether balance to 21.72 million ETH, down from its record high of 31.68 million ETH in June 2020.

Interestingly, over 30% of all Ether's withdrawals from exchanges witnessed in 2022 appeared earlier this week, data from IntoTheBlock shows. In detail, over 180,000 ETH left crypto trading platforms on March 15, bringing the weekly outflow's worth to a little over $500 million as of March 18.

Chainalysis data showed similar readings, revealing that Ether tokens could have left exchanges this week at an average of about 120,000 units per day, a bullish signal. Excerpts:

IntoTheBlock provided a similar upside outlook while citing a fractal from October 2021 that saw the Ether's price rising by 15% ten days after the Ethereum network detected massive ETH withdrawals from centralized crypto exchanges.

The increase in Ether withdrawals from exchanges this week coincided with about 190,000 ETH moving into Lido's "stETH liquid staking" pools, IntoTheBlock noted.

To recap, Lido is a non-custodial staking service that enables users to overcome challenges associated with staking on the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain, including the requirement of staking a minimum of 32 ETH or its multiples. Furthermore, Lido proposes to solve the capital efficiency problem by issuing stETH, the tokenized version of staked ETH.

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