This week in East 8 Time, after experiencing a round of widespread declines, Ethereum, along with various mainstream assets, faced pressure, leading to increased price volatility. However, from the perspective of on-chain accumulation and institutional commentary, bullish sentiment has not been completely shattered. Unlike retail investors who tend to reduce their positions during sharp fluctuations, traditional financial institutions like Standard Chartered have publicly released bullish signals for Ethereum and BMNR during this volatile phase, viewing the current range as a more attractive window for risk-reward positioning. At the same time, the stark contrast between the approximately $151 million in liquidations across the network and the quiet accumulation of 4,450 ETH by large addresses exposes the core conflict in the market—whether this is the end of panic selling or the starting point for a new round of institutional bets.

$151 Million in Liquidations: Panic Selling and Leverage Cleansing

● Concentrated cleansing of leveraged funds: According to CoinAnk data, the total liquidation scale in the crypto market this week in East 8 Time was approximately $151 million, indicating that a large number of high-leverage positions accumulated during the previous one-sided market were concentratedly liquidated. Both long and short positions with high leverage were unable to meet margin calls during sudden volatility, forcing them to exit, which transmitted the pressure of passive liquidations to the spot market, amplifying the downward price movement and intraday volatility.

● Adjustments clearing excessive speculation: A report from Coinbase noted that the recent downturn in Q4 2025 was similar to this round of adjustments, which effectively helps to clear excessive leverage and short-term speculation, allowing the market structure to return from "fragile prosperity" to "healthy contraction." From this perspective, the recent liquidations are not merely negative events but rather a forced correction of the excessive greed from the previous phase, reserving space for a more sustainable upward trend.

● Making room for medium to long-term funds: After the liquidation of leveraged funds, although market volatility may temporarily increase, the remaining chips are more concentrated among low-leverage and non-leverage spot holders. For medium to long-term funds, the price correction combined with a reduction in speculative positions means they can enter or increase their holdings at a lower cost and in a safer structure, allowing for a more measured pace in reallocating core assets like Ethereum.

Standard Chartered and Wall Street Stand on the Bullish Side

● Traditional banks' betting preferences: Geoff Kendrick, the global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, recently expressed a bullish outlook on ETH and BMNR, emphasizing that after experiencing a round of adjustments, both are more attractive in terms of risk/reward ratio. This statement represents a systematic assessment of crypto assets from the research side of large banks, rather than an emotional short-term judgment, reflecting that traditional finance is beginning to view Ethereum as one of the options to be included in medium to long-term asset allocation baskets.

● Structural foundation considered more solid: Coinbase Institutional's latest report pointed out that after the adjustment, the structural foundation of the cryptocurrency market is "more solid." This means that in terms of liquidity distribution, leverage levels, and institutional participation, the market is slowly transitioning from a high-volatility phase dominated by retail sentiment to a more mature phase with greater participation from medium to long-term funds and institutional asset managers, with Ethereum at the core of this structural reshaping.

● Institutional and retail sentiment misalignment: At a time when prices are under pressure and liquidations are constantly making headlines, several institutions have chosen to release relatively optimistic medium to long-term views, creating a clear misalignment with the "impending crash" sentiment prevalent on social media. One side views the adjustment as an opportunity for chip reorganization and redistribution, while the other is more amplified by short-term floating losses and pullbacks, and this divergence in sentiment and behavior is the key background for the current Ethereum bull-bear game.

4,450 ETH Quietly Accumulated

● "Maji" address's counter-cyclical absorption: On-chain data monitoring platform Lookonchain shows that the large address nicknamed "Maji" currently holds approximately 4,450 ETH, valued at about $12.94 million at the latest valuation. During the recent price correction and sharp cooling of sentiment, this address chose to continue holding and even accumulate more at lower prices, reflecting a firm bet on Ethereum's fundamentals and the continuation of subsequent narratives from a medium to long-term perspective.

● The contrasting dynamics of liquidation selling and on-chain bottom-fishing: On one side, there are the passive liquidations of high-leverage longs in the contract market, while on the other side, large addresses quietly increase their holdings, forming a typical "forced selling and active buying" dynamic. The former is forced to hand over chips at low points after risk management becomes unbalanced, while the latter locks in these passively flowing chips into long-term holding addresses at relatively lower costs, changing the quality of chip distribution.

● Reinforcement of the "smart money contrarian operation" narrative: Whether it is the holding actions of the "Maji" address or the proactive statements from some institutions during the correction phase, they continuously reinforce a story that the market often tells—so-called "smart money" tends to quietly accumulate during panic and subtly reduce holdings during euphoria. For Ethereum, the accumulation by large addresses and institutions during this round of correction seems more like laying down chips in advance for the next phase of the market rather than losing confidence in the sector.

GDP Slowdown and Super Cycle: The Dislocation of Macro and Crypto

● Repricing pressure from economic slowdown: According to S&P Global, the annualized GDP growth rate expectation for the U.S. is about 1.5%, indicating that the trend of marginal slowdown in growth momentum is strengthening. In this macro context, traditional assets, especially high-valuation growth stocks, face certain valuation repricing pressures, leading funds to reassess the risk-return characteristics of different asset classes, thus including crypto assets like Ethereum in broader discussions of global asset reallocation.

● Super cycle sentiment anchor: At the Davos Forum, CZ suggested that Bitcoin may enter a "super cycle" this year, providing a new emotional anchor for risk assets. Regardless of whether this statement can be fully realized, it reshapes investors' imaginations about the long-term upward space of crypto assets. As a core asset alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum is naturally included in this macro narrative, seeking new pricing ranges between high volatility and high elasticity.

● Inflation and growth uncertainty driving re-evaluation of allocations: Currently, there is still significant divergence in the market regarding future inflation paths and economic growth slopes, intertwining risk aversion and speculative psychology. Some funds, when traditional asset return expectations weaken, choose to increase tentative allocations to crypto assets, viewing them as "non-traditional hedging tools" alongside tech growth stocks and gold. Ethereum's position in smart contracts and application ecosystems makes it one of the key targets for macro funds considering "hedging uncertainty + betting on new technology cycles."

Upgrade Implementation and Narrative Continuation: Ethereum's Long-Term Chips

● Upgrades as key levers for efficiency and status: The market generally views Ethereum's upcoming network upgrades as important levers for enhancing execution efficiency and strengthening ecological competitiveness. Whether it is optimizing throughput capacity, fee structures, or security and scalability, as long as the upgrades can be successfully implemented and adopted by developers and users, it will further consolidate its core position in the public chain landscape, providing a technical foundation for the long-term logic of "driving value through applications."

● Optimistic outlook and long-term growth expectations: Coinbase and several Chinese crypto media outlets hold a relatively optimistic view of Ethereum's overall prospects around Q1 2026, believing that under the multiple effects of a gradually clarifying macro environment, ongoing network upgrades, and increased institutional participation, Ethereum is expected to continue its long-term growth trajectory. Although the specific path judgments of various institutions and media differ, the consensus that "there is still upward space in the medium to long term" is strengthening the market's recognition of its long-term chip value.

● Upgrade effects and on-chain activities still to be verified: It is important to emphasize that the value of any technological upgrade needs to be tested over time and through real on-chain activities. Short-term price fluctuations reflect more of liquidity contraction and emotional volatility rather than an immediate pricing of all long-term value. For Ethereum, the subsequent developer activity, actual use cases, and user retention data are the key variables for measuring the effectiveness of upgrades, and the market needs to observe whether these indicators align with the current optimistic narrative over a longer cycle.

From Liquidation to Reconstruction: The Next Act of the Ethereum Bull-Bear Game

The intertwining of liquidations and institutional accumulation on the same timeline forms the market's main line of "short-term pain for long-term space." On one hand, approximately $151 million in leveraged liquidations accelerated the extrusion of the previous bubble, while on the other hand, the contrarian layouts of Standard Chartered, Coinbase, and large on-chain addresses have built a new support framework for Ethereum's long-term pricing. In the macro environment where the U.S. economic growth rate is slowing and the "super cycle" narrative coexists, Ethereum is situated in a high-volatility, high-elasticity range, making it susceptible to sharp corrections due to liquidity contraction, but also capable of releasing excess elasticity when sentiment and funds resonate. Moving forward, what truly deserves close monitoring will be the pace of institutional entry, on-chain activity, and the substantive usage situation after the network upgrades—only when these variables continue to improve can the current optimistic expectations led by institutions and "smart money" have the opportunity to be fully realized in price terms.

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