ETH Hits Yearly Low Against BTC as Investors Flood Exchanges

The last time ETH traded so low against the market leader was in the middle of last year.

It’s safe to say that the world’s largest altcoin has underperformed in recent weeks as each attempt for a breakout was stopped at $2,400, and the subsequent rejection has pushed it further south. What’s particularly worrying is that ETH dipped below the crucial $2,200 support after today’s drop, and its behavior against bitcoin is even more painful.

In fact, the ETH/BTC pair just dropped to a 10-month low at under 0.028. Recall that ETH traded at over 0.042 BTC in September last year, shortly after its all-time high against the greenback, but it has been mostly downhill since then. Popular analyst Ted Pillows said this decline occurred even as Tom Lee’s BitMine continues to spend millions of dollars each week to accumulate more tokens.

ETH/BTC has hit a new yearly low.

This is despite Tom Lee buying $200M+ in $ETH every week. pic.twitter.com/PpNyUcgACp

— Ted (@TedPillows) May 16, 2026

ETH to Exchanges

Ali Martinez cited data from CryptoQuant, which could result in even more price declines for the altcoin. He noted that over 500,000 ETH had been sent to trading venues in the past week alone. In terms of USD value, this substantial stash is worth over $1.1 billion. Such large transfers could intensify the immediate selling pressure as traders usually send tokens to exchanges if they want to cash out.

Martinez warned recently that the TD Sequential, a popular indicator used to showcase whether an asset has exhausted its move in either direction, had flashed a sell signal for ETH. He believes the altcoin could be on the verge of a more painful decline, and outlined a worst-case scenario of a dump below $1,100.

On The Plus Side…

On the opposite side stands Satoshi Flipper, another popular analyst, who recently said ETH could bounce from the lower boundary of the ascending triangle, diagonal support it’s currently testing on the 8-hour chart.

At the same time, Lookonchain outlined an Ethereum OG who has returned to the scene. The unknown investor had received over 11,000 tokens at prices of under $3.50 (yes) 10 years ago, sold some for more than $30 million last year, and has now started buying again.