Ethereum battles to hold $3K as leveraged longs unwind and whale positioning turns critical

ETH trades just above $3,000, off less than 1% intraday but still under pressure after a sharp drop earlier in the week triggered over $120M in liquidations and left a $537M whale long deeply underwater, according to AMBCrypto and CoinGlass data. On-chain metrics from CryptoQuant show whale realized prices converging toward spot—a rare setup that historically precedes either a major accumulation phase or a painful capitulation if $3K breaks.