Most large-cap altcoins have moments of brilliance in this current bull cycle, with Solana and XRP being some of the stand-out performers. On the other hand, Ethereum “the king of altcoins” has struggled to impress, underperforming over the past year.
The latest on-chain data shows that a significant percentage of ETH investors are now underwater, partially due to the downturn that recently plagued the general market. Below is the amount of the Ethereum supply in loss and its potential impact on price.
How Many ETH Tokens Are In Profit?
In a Feb. 8 post on the X platform, prominent on-chain analytics firm Santiment revealed that the amount of Ethereum tokens in the red has steadily increased over the past few weeks. The two relevant metrics here are the “percent of total supply in profit” and “total supply in profit.”
For context, the “supply in profit” metric is calculated by adding all token amounts that were last transferred when the token’s price was less than the current price. Meanwhile, the “percent of total supply in profit” metric measures the percentage of a cryptocurrency’s total supply currently being held at a price higher than the original purchase price. It represents the ratio between supply in profit and circulation supply.
According to Santiment, Ethereum’s market capitalization has slumped by at least 36% since reaching a local high of $4,016 in mid-December. Expectedly, this steady price decline has resulted in a notable drop in the amount of ETH tokens in profit since their date first mined.
Source: Santiment/X
Data from Santiment shows that the amount of Ethereum tokens in profit is currently around 97.7 million, the lowest value since November 4, 2024 (the night Trump won the United States Presidential election) At the same time, the ratio of the total ETH supply in profit stands at 65.5%, the lowest value since October 2, 2024, and down from 97.5% in early December.
Santiment noted in its post:
The crowd has been notoriously negative toward the #2 market cap as it has under-performed compared to other large caps. With a great deal of FUD and retail traders willingly dumping their tokens, there may be some surprise bounces in store once crypto markets are able to stabilize.
When a relatively lesser percentage of a token’s supply is in profit, resilient long-term holders are likely to dominate the market. This means most “FUD and retail traders” have exited their positions and sold their tokens, reducing downward pressure and setting the stage for a potential rebound.
Ethereum Price
As of this writing, the price of ETH sits just above the $2,600 mark, reflecting an over 2% increase in the past 24 hours.
The price of ETH on the daily timeframe | Source: ETHUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView
