Ethereum is experiencing a quiet but significant squeeze. Exchange reserves are draining at a pace of roughly $25.6 million per week, while new smart contract deployments have jumped approximately 50% above the trailing three-month average.
As of August 5, ETH was trading around $1,907, stuck in a tight band between $1,840 and $1,950.
The liquidity drain
The amount of ETH sitting on major exchanges has fallen to multi-year lows, with reports pegging total exchange reserves as low as 16.2 million ETH by mid-2026. Some measures suggest these levels haven’t been this low since 2016.
Staking now accounts for more than 30% of the total ETH supply. Cold storage withdrawals tell a similar story, with holders pulling ETH off exchanges and parking it in wallets they don’t plan to touch anytime soon.
