Ethereum is holding firmly above the $3,150 level as the market shifts into a more bullish phase after enduring weeks of heavy selling pressure and fear-driven liquidation. The recovery has sparked debate among analysts: some view the bounce as nothing more than a relief rally within a broader bearish trend, while others believe Ethereum may be building the foundation for a more sustained rebound.

A new CryptoQuant report offers one of the clearest insights. According to Ethereum data on Binance, the past several weeks have shown heightened volatility in the Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) — a metric that tracks real-time buying and selling pressure. This volatility reflects sharp, rapid shifts in trader behavior as the market attempts to stabilize.

Although Ethereum remains in a downtrend from its August peak, recent CVD spikes point to the return of notable buying activity. However, the report emphasizes that these bursts of demand are sporadic and lack the sustained strength needed to confirm a full bullish reversal.

CVD Volatility Highlights Ongoing Battle Between Buyers and Sellers

According to the Arab Chain report, Ethereum’s CVD recently turned positive, coinciding with the price’s attempt to stabilize above the $3,100 level. This shift indicates fresh liquidity entering the market through short-term buy orders, suggesting that some traders are stepping in to accumulate during dips.

However, the sudden spikes and rapid pullbacks within the CVD reveal that the market remains locked in a strong tug-of-war between buyers and sellers. This volatility underscores the fact that Ethereum has not yet reached either temporal stability or a clear structural trend.

The report also highlights the importance of the 30-day correlation between price and CVD, which has held steady at around 0.6 despite lower price levels. This relatively high reading shows that liquidity flows continue to influence Ethereum’s price direction in a meaningful and consistent way. Even though buying pressure appears irregular, its recurring impact on price suggests that traders are still actively responding to market conditions.

Overall, this pattern reflects investors attempting to capitalize on volatility, especially as anticipation grows around potential liquidity inflows tied to upcoming network upgrades. Yet, Arab Chain stresses that without a more sustained accumulation phase and reduced short-term selling, Ethereum may struggle to generate a decisive upward movement.

Ethereum Attempts a Recovery but Faces Key Resistance

Ethereum’s latest price action shows a cautious recovery as ETH climbs back above the $3,150 level, but the chart reveals that the broader structure remains fragile. After a steep decline from the October highs near $4,500, ETH found support slightly above $2,700, where buyers stepped back in with increased volume—visible in the recent surge of green candles at the bottom of the chart. This reaction suggests renewed interest at lower levels, but not yet a decisive shift in trend.

The price is now pressing against the 100-day SMA (red line), a level that previously acted as support and has now flipped into resistance. Reclaiming this line would be an important step toward restoring bullish momentum. Above it, ETH faces another barrier at the 50-day SMA (blue line), which continues to slope downward, reflecting ongoing medium-term selling pressure.

Despite the rebound, volume remains inconsistent, indicating hesitation among market participants. ETH will need stronger follow-through buying to challenge the next resistance zone around $3,300–$3,350, a region aligned with previous breakdown levels.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com

Ethereum has witnessed a recovery surge recently as on-chain data shows the shark-sized investors have been participating in strong buying.

Ethereum Sharks Have Added 450,000 ETH Since Mid-November

According to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment, the supply of the Ethereum sharks has gone up recently. The indicator of relevance here is the “Supply Distribution,” measuring the total amount of tokens that a given wallet group as a whole is holding right now.

In the context of the current topic, the cohort of focus is the one corresponding to a coin range of 1,000 to 10,000 ETH. At the current exchange rate, the lower bound of the range roughly converts to $3.2 million and the upper one to $32 million. Investors of this large size are popularly known as the sharks. While not as massive as the whales (addresses with more than 10,000 ETH), the sharks are still considered influential entities. This can make their behavior often worth keeping an eye on.

As the chart below, shared by Santiment, suggests, the latest Ethereum shark behavior has been one of accumulation.

During the November price decline, the Supply Distribution had been going down for the Ethereum sharks, but around the time of the market bottom, its trend began to reverse. Between November 18th and December 2nd, the sharks added a total of 450,000 ETH (worth about $1.4 billion) to their wallets, a massive amount. Alongside this sharp uptick in the metric, ETH went through its price recovery.

The cryptocurrency’s sharp retrace to start December didn’t dissuade these large hands, either, as their supply only continued to rise. This may be one of the factors behind the quick resumption of bullish momentum that the asset has seen. Another bullish factor has been the trend in the Network Growth, another on-chain indicator displayed in the chart. This metric measures the daily number of addresses that are coming online on the Ethereum network for the first time.

A wallet is considered “online” when it participates in transaction activity on the blockchain, so the Network Growth essentially tracks the addresses making their very first transfer.

From the graph, it’s visible that this Ethereum metric has also surged recently, hitting a peak value of 190,000 addresses. Generally, a surge in network activity is usually a positive sign for any rally’s sustainability, as it implies that the network is able to attract fresh attention.

That said, too much attention too fast can actually end up having a negative effect on the cryptocurrency. It now remains to be seen whether the sharks will continue to buy in the near future and if investor FOMO will remain at healthy levels.

ETH Price

At the time of writing, Ethereum is floating around $3,185, up more than 5% over the last seven days.