Ethereum's price is around $2,970, a slight rebound from yesterday's $2,934, but this cannot hide the downward trend in Q4 — the entire quarter saw a 28% decline, and December's ETF experienced a net outflow of $600 million. It sounds quite pessimistic, but interestingly, the underlying market signals are starting to change.

Institutions like BitMine have been making large staking purchases aggressively at the end of the year, seemingly to consciously support the price and prevent further breakdown. On-chain data provides a clearer picture. On December 24th, there was a sudden influx of 154,300 ETH, and by the 29th, 82,600 ETH had flowed out. This pattern of frequent whale inflows and outflows is clearly not random.

From a big capital perspective, these actions seem to be preparing for a breakout early next year. Especially near key resistance levels, this institutional positioning suggests they are accumulating energy. While the price is still oscillating, the changes in market holdings beneath the surface may be more worth paying attention to than the candlestick patterns themselves.