Ethereum, which is the second largest cryptocurrency, has experienced many highs and lows in 2025. Ethereum works as a decentralized blockchain platform, and its native cryptocurrency is called Ether (ETH).
This year started well for Ethereum, just like the rest of the cryptocurrency market. But things changed after the first tariffs from Donald Trump, which caused its price to drop under $1,500 in April. Tariffs are additional charges on goods coming into a country; they were raised by Trump to promote US-made products. Learn more about Trump tariffs.
The price then surged, setting a new record by almost reaching the $5,000 mark, beating the high seen in 2021. However, after hitting this peak, things started to go downhill. By November, Ethereum’s price fell nearly 50%, dropping to $2,600. It tried a few times to rise above $3,000 but hasn’t successfully stayed there. There are now worrying signs about where its price is heading in the future.
Investors Are Selling Ethereum
Ali Martinez, a crypto expert, revealed that large Ethereum investors, often called ‘whales,’ sold around $360 million worth of ETH within just one week. Whales are investors who hold massive amounts of cryptocurrencies. Their total amount of ETH has been shrinking since October—from over 5.73 million tokens to 5.61 million tokens.
Another sign that investors are backing away is what’s happening with Ethereum ETFs. An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a kind of investment where people buy a share of a fund tied to an asset—like Ethereum—without owning the asset itself. It gives investors exposure to Ethereum without having to buy or store the cryptocurrency.
Data shows that Ethereum-based ETFs have seen losses for seven straight trading days since mid-December. In the last week, almost $650 million was lost in these funds, totaling over $700 million in losses since December 11. The total money invested in Ethereum ETFs was more than $15 billion in October. Now, it has dropped below $12.5 billion.
Signs Of Optimism
Not all the signs are bad, though. According to on-chain data, retail investors (regular individuals, not giant companies or whales) might be coming back. Santiment, a platform that tracks crypto activities, shared that many new Ethereum addresses have been created recently. In December, there were some days with over 190,000 new addresses made each day. This is even higher than the figures from July, when Ethereum’s price started to go up. New wallets could mean more interest in buying and using Ethereum.
There’s also hope from some analysts. One of them, Merlijn The Trader, believes Ethereum might be ready for another big price jump. He compared the current buildup to how Ethereum behaved between 2015-2018, a period when its price grew fast. If this happens, Ethereum could see big gains compared to Bitcoin (BTC).
Merlijn said, “This Ethereum move will catch everyone off guard,” suggesting that the price rise could be unexpected.