The cryptocurrency market has seen rough sessions lately. The leading alt, Ethereum, trades at $1,974, gaining 0.23% within the past 24 hours. The altcoin has a 0.91 correlation with Bitcoin. For that reason, ETH enthusiasts should watch BTC price actions for profitable decisions.

However, the past day remained critical for ETH as bears dominated the space. On May 20, the Ethereum network saw a drastic volume slump, losing 19.5% of its value. Indeed, these are disturbing developments for the Ethereum blockchain and the entire cryptocurrency community.

What of the Charts?

Ethereum’s transaction volume sustained a massive hit amid bearish price tendencies and increased fear within the financial industry. For instance, the median transfer volume plunged to 16-month lows at $107.7, according to Glassnode reports. That presented pessimistic signals for the ETH ecosystem, suggesting stagnated whale activity.

Enthusiasts consider whale activity as a vital indicator of the asset’s price. Ethereum blockchain has never seen such lows since May 20. Another chilling metric indicated a bearish bias in most ETH-based addresses.

Total addresses at a loss on Ether hit a two-year peak of 33.4 million on May 21. Multiple addresses experience losses that can translate to investors exiting their positions soon.

Vitalik Buterin Adds More News

Though Ethereum has dominated social media conversations due to the anticipated Merge, CEO Buterin also took the center podium. Recently, he tweeted about not being a billionaire anymore. That shocked the ETH community since Buterin boasts enormous digital wallet holdings.

Buterin’s digital wallet had holdings worth near $1.5 billion as of November last year. Since then, ETH, the coins related to his blockchain, lost 55%, according to reports by Bloomberg. Ether traded near $4,800 in November 2021 before a bearish ride to the current levels beneath $2,000. Market experts blame the decline phase on macro headwinds plus regulatory standoffs.

Nevertheless, the ETH community may have to HODL through the ongoing bearish phase amid recessions worries to emerge victoriously.

While writing this news, bears controlled the crypto marketplace. Bitcoin fails to reclaim the 30K despite multiple upticks beyond the level. Only hodlers can succeed in these challenging times. Would you rather sell at a loss?