The market swings back and forth between two extremes, but those who truly make money are always the ones who understand the actions of the main players.

The tug-of-war around $3000 for Ethereum is no longer just a battle of technical levels. Recently, this wave of market movement feels more like a psychological confrontation—early in the morning, a big fish suddenly dumps nearly 15,000 ETH, yet the price doesn’t break below $2950; instead, it finds support there and quickly bounces back. Such a trend isn’t something ordinary retail investors can create.

Looking at on-chain data, the story becomes even more interesting. After ETH repeatedly tested the $3000 level without breaking through last week, retail investors started to panic. In the $2980 to $2990 range, stop-loss orders piled up like mountains, and everyone thought this barrier couldn’t be crossed. But at the same time, large buy orders on exchanges kept pouring in. In mid-December, whales concentrated to sell over 28,500 ETH, and instead of market collapse, the price anchored at the key level of $2882.

This is the difference between the main players and retail investors. One is dumping, the other is accumulating—price and capital flow are moving in opposite directions, which is a hallmark of main player operations. Retail investors see sell-offs and run, while institutions quietly build positions in the dark. The current market is actually stuck at this "shakeout and order-taking" node. The main players are leveraging the emotional and liquidity vacuum to quietly transfer chips.

From a technical perspective, ETH is currently at the end of a converging triangle pattern, which often signals an imminent directional breakout.