Ethereum to $4K? – THESE ETH metrics hold the answer!

Key TakeawaysEthereum’s price breakout past $2,850 triggered $206 million in exchange outflows – a sign of bullish accumulation. Yet, bearish whales are shorting big. Here’s what on-chain signals reveal.Following the breakout of the key resistance level at $2,850, Ethereum [ETH] turned bullish and is poised for an upward rally. The move appears to be retesting its breakout zone, a typical pattern before continuation. However, price action alone isn’t telling the full story.$64M ETH buy meets $143M in shortsOn-chain tracker Lookonchain revealed a curious standoff, with some participants appearing to bet on the bearish side, while others seem to be taking advantage of the price consolidation.On the 12th of July, Lookonchain noted Sharplink (SBET) purchased a significant 21,487 ETH worth $64.26 million via OTC and Coinbase Prime.Source: XIn fact, this purchase came shortly after the firm had acquired 10,000 ETH worth $25 million from the Ethereum Foundation.But not all whales are onboard.Within the same window, three wallets opened heavy leveraged shorts, betting against ETH with 15x–25x leverage. In total, 48,458 ETH worth $143.37 million were shorted using just $10.5 million in USDC margin.When combining these posts on X, it appears that the long-term outlook remains bullish. While there is a possibility of a short-term price correction, it seems unlikely given the current market structure.$206 million worth of Ethereum leaves exchangesGiven the current market sentiment, investors and long-term holders have been accumulating ETH, as reported by the on-chain analytics platform CoinGlass.Source: CoinGlassEthereum saw net Outflows of over $206 million across exchanges on the 11th of July. Such moves often reflect whale accumulation and reduced sell-side liquidity, reinforcing bullish setups.Still, the outflow scale, while significant, comes amid a decline in daily trading volume, which dropped 35% in the last 24 hours. That adds ambiguity to near-term price direction.What ETH charts suggest nextAMBCrypto’s technical analysis revealed that Ethereum broke out of the key resistance level at $2,850 and appeared bullish during press time.However, due to the overextended price and a gain of over 20% in the past three days, the asset seems to be experiencing price consolidation. In that scenario, the price may either retest the breakout area or continue its upward momentum after consolidating for a while.Source: TradingViewAt press time, the ETH price was trading above the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) on the daily timeframe, indicating that the asset is in an uptrend.The breakout projects a potential 37% rally toward the $4,000 level if ETH maintains its footing above the former resistance.