Ethereum's (CRYPTO: ETH) recent weekend pump to $2,826 sparked hopes of a sustained rally. But the optimism was short-lived.

What Happened: A quick retrace to $2,700 left traders questioning whether the uptrend is merely delayed or if Ethereum remains vulnerable.  

Trader Notes: Crypto trader Michael van de Poppe commented that Ethereum's failure to close above key levels means the "party got delayed" and expects another test of the lows before a potential move higher.

Santiment data shows Ethereum supply on exchanges dropped to a record low of 6.38%, signaling long-term accumulation. Community interest has risen in February, with traders anticipating a recovery after ETH underperformed against large caps in 2024.

Daan Crypto Trades observed that ETH has fully retraced in both price and open interest, shedding most of the $1.5 billion added during the pump. He warns that aggressive long positioning on small green days is unsustainable without stronger spot demand—which is currently lacking.

Statistics: Industry expert Quinten highlighted that Ethereum whale holdings (10,000 to 100,000 ETH) have surged from 3,400 in January to over 4,000 currently, per CryptoQuant.

IntoTheBlock data shows Ethereum large transaction volume expanded by 83.3% and exchanges netflows by 815.2% in a single day. Daily active addresses dropped by 1.7%. Transactions greater than $100,000 surged from 3,711 to 6,682.

Glassnode data shows U.S. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw net inflows of 145,000 ETH in February—nearly 7x the total inflows of January.

Coinglass data shows Ethereum open interest spiked to $24.4 billion, highest since Feb 4. In the past 24 hours, Ethereum liquidations stood at $48.5 million.

Community News: Asset manager Brevan Howard Digital's Abu Dhabi branch allocated $20 million to Kinto, an Ethereum layer-2 platform with built-in compliance mechanisms, CoinDesk reported.

Also, Ethereum's network fees dropped by 70% over the past week, ahead of Pectra and Fusaka upgrades in April 2025.

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