Ethereum is trading around $2,273. That number matters more than it looks. The bulk of high-leverage long positions built up near that level have already been forced out, according to derivatives data tracked across major exchanges.
CoinAnk liquidation chart data in the chart above shows concentrated long clusters across Binance, Bybit, OKX, Aevo, Hyperliquid, and Lighter from the $2,183 range up to the current price zone. Most of that leverage has now been cleared.
Retail Still Leaning Long, Whales Not
Crypto account kriptoholder on X flagged that retail longs are sitting at 73.19% while shorts stand at 26.80% on Binance. The Whale vs Retail Delta is at -22.01, meaning whale-side selling pressure has not let up.
“ETH still looks more fragile compared to BTC,” kriptoholder posted on X, adding that “spot buying support must return” before any real recovery becomes possible.
The spread between retail positioning and whale behavior tells its own story. Retail longs piled in. Whales kept selling into that. The result is visible in the price: ETH has underperformed Bitcoin through this leg down.
For ETH to shift direction, the sell delta needs to weaken first. That has not happened yet.
The Long Flush and What Comes Next
CW8900 on X broke down the positioning clearly. High-leverage long positions on ETH have dropped sharply. Short positions have edged up, but only slightly.
“Most of the greedy long positions have been liquidated,” CW8900 wrote on X. “The next step will be the liquidation of short positions.”
The scale of high-leverage ETH positions was never that large to begin with, CW8900 noted. But the longs that did exist and held aggressively near the $2,250 to $2,280 range have largely been wiped. That part of the cleanup is done.
Chart Tells the Same Story
Looking at the CoinAnk liquidation heatmap shared above, the concentration of liquidation volume across exchanges peaks right around the $2,268 to $2,280 zone. Binance shows the deepest red bars in that range, with Bybit and OKX contributing substantial overlapping clusters.
The current price at $2,268.5 sits right on top of where the bulk of that leverage sat. The flush has happened. Short positions are now the thinner, exposed side.
Kriptoholder’s Binance chart backs this up. The Hyblock True Retail Longs and Shorts indicator shows longs stuck elevated at 70,000 while the Whale vs Retail Delta histogram keeps printing negative values, a pattern visible across the entire recent price decline.
ETH Vs BTC: The Gap Is Real
ETH looked more bearish and fragile than Bitcoin before this move, kriptoholder stated on X the day prior. The market followed that call precisely.
Selling pressure on the ETH side deepened while Bitcoin held comparatively firmer. That divergence between the two assets is not just sentiment. It shows up in the derivatives: whale-side positioning is negative on ETH specifically, not crypto broadly.
Until spot buying returns and the whale delta flips, ETH recovery attempts are likely to stay shallow.
