Ethereum’s (ETH) provide on centralized exchanges (CEXs) has dropped to only 18.5 million ETH, the bottom it’s been in years.
Partially, the decline comes on account of the weakening Bitcoin (BTC) dominance, with investor demand more and more tilting towards Ethereum because of its yield potential.
Accordingly, the market is speculating whether or not falling provide and rising demand might pave the best way for a big squeeze.
Ethereum ever extra widespread as a long-term holding
At press time, Ethereum’s whole circulating provide stands at 120.7 million ETH, but reserves on exchanges have now dropped to 18.5 million in keeping with August 25 knowledge from on-chain and market knowledge analytics platform CryptoQuant.
What’s extra, roughly 29.6% of the cryptocurrency is now staked, with roughly $89.25 billion locked throughout staking protocols.
As alluded to, one cause for that is that yields are incentivizing long-term holding over short-term buying and selling.
In the meantime, in Q2 2025, burns outpaced new issuance, shrinking the efficient circulating provide even additional.
Institutional demand continues to develop
Ethereum’s institutionalization has accelerated sharply in 2025, and company treasuries now maintain almost 1.9% of the entire provide.
After all, ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have performed a vital position, with BlackRock (IBIT) and Constancy (FBTC) alone reporting a 65% surge in belongings beneath administration (AUM) final quarter.
The latest reclassification of Ethereum as a utility token has additional legitimized its position in institutional portfolios.
All in all, the provision squeeze probably represents the asset’s transformation from a speculative asset to a core institutional holding.
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