In mid-May, Ethereum is experiencing a rare "double withdrawal of funds" situation: on one end, large on-chain addresses are quietly reducing their holdings, while on the other, the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF has seen significant net outflows. According to data organized by AiCoin based on multiple monitoring sources, nearly 60 addresses holding at least 10,000 ETH have completed sell-offs or significant consolidation of positions over the past two months leading up to the report. These addresses are typically viewed as representatives of institutional capital or high-net-worth investors, and their simultaneous withdrawals are interpreted by the market as a signal of declining mid-term risk appetite. Meanwhile, compliant funds on the ETF side are also withdrawing: as of May 19, 2026, the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF recorded a net outflow of approximately $62.27 million in a single day, with BlackRock's ETHA seeing about $59.37 million in net outflows and Fidelity's FETH about $3.68 million. Only Bitwise's ETHW recorded a slight net inflow of about $760,000. The simultaneous contraction of on-chain whales and ETF funds has made "Ethereum under pressure" the main topic of market discussions. This article will unfold around this double withdrawal, analyzing its causes and structure from the dimensions of address behavior and ETF redemption, and assessing the actual constraints this funding contraction may impose on Ethereum's mid-to-short-term sentiment and expectations.

60 whales' sell-offs in two months: What are large on-chain addresses doing?

According to AiCoin data, about 60 wallet addresses holding at least 10,000 ETH have been monitored for either emptying or consolidating their holdings over the past two months. These addresses typically correspond to institutional investors or high-net-worth individuals and are regarded as representatives of mid-to-long-term capital in the Ethereum network. Therefore, their concentrated withdrawals are seen by the market as the core signal of this round of on-chain anomalies, rather than the ordinary noise level of chip movement.

Analyst Ali believes these whale addresses exiting the network in a short period often indicates institutions taking profit and reallocating assets using recent liquidity windows, representing a typical de-risking behavior, reflecting weakened confidence in Ethereum's mid-term performance. However, current public information does not provide the total amount of ETH withdrawn from these addresses nor the granular on-chain path details; some large transfers could quite possibly be cold wallet migrations, adjustments in custody arrangements, or internal account consolidations, not necessarily corresponding directly to immediate sales in the secondary market. Hence, a more prudent approach is to view these whale actions as signals of large holders' sentiment and position structure adjustments, rather than simply equating them to quantifiable selling pressure.

Net outflow of $62.27 million in one day: ETF investors hit the brakes

According to monitoring accounts such as Trader T, on May 19, 2026, the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF recorded a net outflow of about $62.27 million, with ETH allocations through compliant channels seeing a noticeably concentrated contraction on that trading day. Among them, BlackRock's ETHA saw outflows of about $59.37 million, while Fidelity's FETH saw outflows of about $3.68 million, both almost accounting for the entire net outflow; on the same day, Bitwise's ETHW saw a slight net inflow of about $760,000, but the scale is far smaller than the redemption amounts of ETHA and FETH, rendering its impact on overall fund direction negligible. It should be emphasized that redemption data from other dates, such as May 18, 2026, was excluded from this statistic due to conflicts, and the current judgment is based solely on the day of May 19.

BlackRock and Fidelity are leading asset management institutions in the U.S., and their spot Ethereum ETF products are widely seen as the primary vehicle for institutional and compliant capital to allocate ETH. Therefore, this net outflow led by ETHA and FETH appears more like a "brake-pushing" signal for a slowdown in allocation rather than an isolated fluctuation from a single small issuer. In contrast, the limited net inflow of ETHW reflects more of a detail difference in fund product choices, which hardly changes the overall redemption direction. Against the backdrop of large on-chain addresses continuously withdrawing positions over the past two months, the compliant funds on the ETF side also transitioning to net outflows intuitively conveys the market's hesitant attitude towards mid-to-short-term allocations in Ethereum through redemption data.

Large on-chain holders and ETF withdraw at the same time: Ethereum is under double pressure

In the two months leading up to the report, about 60 large addresses holding at least 10,000 ETH have been monitored for emptying or consolidating their holdings, which are typically seen as representatives of institutional or high-net-worth funds. On May 19, 2026, the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF again experienced a net outflow of about $62.27 million in one day, with BlackRock's ETHA seeing about $59.37 million outflow, and Fidelity's FETH about $3.68 million outflow; only Bitwise's ETHW saw a slight net inflow of about $760,000. With large on-chain holders continuously "reducing positions," combined with centralized net redemptions of compliant products in mid-May, there has been partial temporal overlap, objectively amplifying the market's perception of current pressure on Ethereum. Analyst Ali interprets this round of rapid exits by whales as institutions utilizing the recent liquidity window for profit-taking and asset reallocation, representing typical de-risking actions, maintaining caution regarding Ethereum's mid-term outlook.

Mainstream interpretation tends to believe that whether it is the withdrawal of large on-chain addresses or the net outflows of ETF funds, this round is more about investors voluntarily reducing their exposure to Ethereum amid macro uncertainties and sector rotations, rather than a simple turnaround into bearish sentiment. Some minority perspectives suggest that some ETF redemptions and position adjustments may be made to create space for a potential rebound or to rebalance portfolios, but currently, there is a lack of longer time series and more product dimension data support, and this optimistic interpretation has yet to reach consensus. In mid-May 2026, multiple Chinese media outlets, including TechFlow, Jinse Finance, and Rhythm, concentrated on amplifying the narrative of "whale sell-offs + ETF bleeding," reinforcing the impression of "pressure on funds" at the public opinion level; however, these reports only change emotions and interpretation methods and do not reverse the already materialized on-chain address behavior and ETF redemption records.

Unverified selling pressure signals: Large inflows to exchanges await verification

Apart from the narrative of "whale sell-offs + ETF bleeding," the market is also circulating a more aggressive on-chain claim: a single source asserts that over the past 7 days, more than 500,000 ETH have flowed into various exchanges, amounting to approximately $1.16 billion based on its data; the same source also claims that since October 2025, medium-sized addresses holding 1,000–10,000 ETH have cumulatively reduced their holdings by over 3,400,000 ETH, roughly equivalent to $7.9 billion, and further indicates that a single day saw about 225,000 ETH deposited into Binance, described as the largest single-day net inflow since 2022. If these data are entirely accurate, combined with the confirmed large holders' withdrawals and ETF net outflows, it would undoubtedly significantly amplify the narrative of potential selling pressure facing Ethereum.

The problem lies in the fact that these three sets of figures are currently only disclosed by a single source and have yet to receive cross-validation from other on-chain data services or public monitoring accounts, and strictly speaking, can only be regarded as "unverified signals," not to be included as certainties in trading and allocation decisions. Meanwhile, the label of "large inflows to exchanges" itself carries risks of interpretive bias: some analyses have pointed out that such transfer records often involve cold wallet migrations, internal address switches by platforms or custodians, and consolidations of custody accounts, not necessarily corresponding to active selling behavior in the secondary market. In the absence of more granular address tagging, longer time series comparisons, and multi-source data corroboration, any strong conclusions drawn based on these unverified data—whether "systematic selling pressure has commenced" or "medium-sized whales have already cleared out"—can only be classified as high-uncertainty hypotheses, not hard constraints on which to base bets.

Three signals to watch next

The next three data dimensions worth closely monitoring directly determine whether this round of "double withdrawal of funds" will be recorded as a short-term volatility or evolve into a longer-term repositioning of holdings. First, the addresses holding at least 10,000 ETH: over the past nearly two months, about 60 such addresses have cleared or consolidated their holdings. The next step is to observe whether the number of such addresses and the scale of their holdings continue to decline or stabilize or even show a return, which will be the key clue indicating whether there is a turning point in large holders' attitudes towards Ethereum's mid-term prospects. Second, the daily net redemptions of the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF: it is known that on May 19, 2026, there was a net outflow of about $62.27 million (of which ETHA had about $59.37 million and FETH about $3.68 million, with ETHW seeing a slight $760,000 net inflow), but this is just a single day's snapshot. If large-scale net outflows continue, it indicates that the de-risking actions of compliant funds are ongoing; if the trends gradually restore to net inflows, it means that allocation willingness and risk appetite begin to recover. Third, it is essential to monitor whether the data itself is being completed—currently lacking precise total amounts for whale sell-offs, longer time series, and full-scope ETF product data, and lacking support from futures and other derivatives, under such circumstances, the best approach is to conservatively qualitatively define the observed phenomena as "short-term under pressure" and "de-risking window." Before more on-chain and ETF data is supplemented, it is wiser to regard this round of "double withdrawal of funds" as a window for Ethereum bulls to concentrate on deleveraging and re-evaluating risk, rather than a one-way bearish signal that has already indicated a shift in mid-to-long-term trends.

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