As large holders and institutions continue to accumulate assets, Ethereum supply for centralized exchange has fallen to its lowest levels for over a decade.
According to a May 19 update by Santiment, less than 4.9% of Ethereum (ETH) total supply is held on record low exchanges in the network’s more than 10 years of history. Santiment said 15.3 million ETH have been withdrawn from the centralized trading platform over the past five years.
For the first time in its 10-year history, Ethereum has less than 4.9% of the exchange’s supply. And since November 2018, Bitcoin exchange supply reached 7.1% for the first time.
Over the past five years, there have been:
👉Reduce Bitcoin by 1.7m
👉15.3m low…pic.twitter.com/kkn9s1m2mc– santiment (@santimentfeed) May 19, 2025
Recently, Cryptorank.io reported on May 18 that over a million ETH have been withdrawn from the exchange in the past month alone. The platform says, “users are increasingly choosing to accumulate Ethereum rather than trade it,” pointing to long-term trust in their assets.
On-chain data shows that the Ethereum whales, a wallet holding over 10,000 ETH, have added over 450,000 ETH since late April. By May 10th, these large holders had owned 4075 million ETH, the highest level since March, as tracked by Santiment.
The institutions are also showing growing interest. According to data from Sosovalue, US Spot Eth Spot ETFs have reversed their long-term outflows last month after seeing a net inflow of $30 million. At the same time, BlackRock’s assets under management exceed $2.9 billion, and signaling continues to accumulate.
Analysts say ETH has become a key asset for institutional investors. In a May 12th post on X, market analyst Adriano Feria wrote:
“ETH remains the most natural option for institutional diversification. It is the only crypto asset with ETF access, regulatory clarity and built-in yield potential.”
Ethereum also benefits from recent network upgrades. The Pectra upgrade, released on May 7th, improved the way Ethereum processes data. This helped to increase activity in Layer 2 networks built on Ethereum. According to L2Beat data, Base has led the way with 259 million transactions over the last 30 days, with an overall Layer 2 activity increasing by more than 20% compared to the previous month.
Meanwhile, the market is monitoring a possible Securities and Exchange Commission decision by June 1st regarding whether spot ETH ETFs will be allowed to staking. If approved, the institution can earn returns through these funds, potentially attracting more capital. BlackRock and other companies claim that staking makes Ethereum ETFs more complete.
According to some analysts, Ethereum could outperform Solana (SOL) and other tokens this bull cycle. Bitmex co-founder Arthur Hayes said in a recent interview that ETH is expected to be better in the bull market in the coming days due to its robust security, vibrant developer community and substantial user base.
As of press time, Ethereum is trading at $2,535, an increase of 57% in the last 30 days after a 45% decline in the first quarter.
