Ethereum's exchange balances have just touched a pivotal node – 8.84% of the total supply, which is an all-time low. For reference, Bitcoin's exchange balance remains around 14.8%.

What does this mean? To put it simply, ETH is rapidly disappearing from these "public shelves" of exchanges and being transferred to various long-term lock-up scenarios. There are fewer and fewer ETH available in the market, but many people's focus is still on short-term price fluctuations.

A few notable phenomena:

First of all, the figure of 8.84% is quite hardcore. It's not a sentiment indicator, but real on-chain data - the supply of sellable ETH is indeed tightening. The market can be pessimistic, but changes at the supply level are objective.

Where did ETH go? The answer is to be "eaten" by various agreements. Staking mechanism, Layer2 ecosystem, re-pledge protocol, collateral lending...... These scenarios have a common feature: ETH will not flow back to the market in the short term after entering. Liquidity is being siphoned into reservoirs that "only go in and can't get out".

Interestingly, there is a certain separation between market sentiment and fundamentals. "Large-scale hoarding" is quietly occurring on the chain, while traders' sentiment is biased towards panic. When the emotional fog dissipates, what may be revealed is an extremely tight supply reality.

For example: imagine an invisible "pump" that continuously pumps ETH from the exchange pool 24 hours a day and injects it into bottomless protocols. The water level in the pool was already very low, but the people on the shore were still arguing about whether the weather was good or bad. When you react and want to buy, how much is left in the pool?

So the question arises: do you believe in fluctuating sentiment or are you staring at these cold on-chain numbers?