The crypto market has been very volatile lately. After US economic data was weaker than expected, investors pulled capital from risky assets, and Ethereum was the main victim. ETH briefly fell below $2k and touched $1956 before a slight recovery. Now the price has risen to $2.32K, but sentiment remains mixed.

What’s interesting is the actions of the whales. On one side, there are clearly bearish whales – some whales even opened short positions in futures with 10x leverage after liquidating long positions worth $56 million. The ETH long/short ratio dropped below 1, down to 0.96, indicating that most futures participants are expecting further losses. It looks like they are betting against the market.

But on the other side, there are whales who are optimistic about the long term. One whale who had been dormant for a year suddenly woke up and staked 8,208 ETH worth $16.85 million. If whales choose to stake during a bear market like this, it’s usually a strong signal that they are confident the market will recover. They are positioned for the long term and believe this phase will pass.

Technically, the momentum is still bearish – the DMI-ADX indicator shows a negative bias with +DI above -DI. But there’s a projection that ETH could recover to $2186 before testing lower levels. So for now, it’s a wait-and-see situation, depending on whether the support $2k can hold or not.