The amount of Ethereum‘s native token Ether (ETH) kept with crypto exchanges has fallen to its lowest levels since September 2018, signaling traders‘ intention to hold the tokens in hopes of a price rally in 2022.

Notably, nearly 550,000 ETH — worth around $1.61 billion — have left centralized trading platforms year-to-date, according to data provided by Glassnode. The massive outflow has reduced the exchanges‘ net-Ether balance to 21.72 million ETH, down from its record high of 31.68 million ETH in June 2020.

Biggest weekly ETH outflow since October 2021

Interestingly, over 30% of all Ether‘s withdrawals from exchanges witnessed in 2022 appeared earlier this week, data from IntoTheBlock shows. In detail, over 180,000 ETH left crypto trading platforms on March 15, bringing the weekly outflow‘s worth to a little over $500 million as of March 18.

Chainalysis data showed similar readings, revealing that Ether tokens could have left exchanges this week at an average of about 120,000 units per day, a bullish signal. Excerpts:

“Assets held on exchanges increase if more market participants want to sell than to buy and if buyers choose to store their assets on exchanges.”

IntoTheBlock provided a similar upside outlook while citing a fractal from October 2021 that saw the Ether‘s price rising by 15% ten days after the Ethereum network detected massive ETH withdrawals from centralized crypto exchanges.

Ethereum supply crunch underway

The increase…