Compass Investments

The amount of available Ether is dwindling as more ETH is withdrawn from active circulation, according to new reporting from Sygnum.

According to Sygnum’s first quarter 2026 investment survey, approximately 45% of all ETH is now locked or difficult to trade. The value of ETH on trading platforms fell 14.5% during the quarter, continuing the downward trend seen over the years. Meanwhile, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) accumulated about 10% of the total ETH volume, and publicly traded corporations hold more than 6.1 million ETH, which is about 5% of the total circulating supply.

The report notes that a decrease in supply can provoke significant fluctuations in quotes, but only if demand increases. Ethereum quotes are still under pressure, with ETH down about 40% from its short-term peak after the October 2025 market crash. ETH is currently trading at $2,736, down 8% over the past week.

According to the report, Ephirium is facing much stronger favorable factors thanks to the successful Fusaka update, a fresh outlook, new ETF filings that include stablecoins, corporate interest, and increased activity in the stablecoin and tokenization segments.

One of the key drivers of the supply decline is ETF activity. Although there were outflows from Ethereum ETFs in the fourth quarter of 2025 (as investors de-risked), Sygnum recorded that net inflows for the year still totaled about 3.4 million ETH worth roughly $11.3 billion. The bank also found that ETF holdings on the blockchain continued to grow during the quarter and into January, reaching nearly 4 million ETH.

Additionally, staking is taking ETH out of circulation, as the number of validators that connected to the network exceeded the number that disconnected during the quarter. This, in turn, increased the amount of ETH secured in smart contracts for steaking. According to Sygnum, this was mainly due to a large investment from cryptocurrency company BitMine.

Other data shows an increase in network activity during the reporting period: Ethereum processed over 145 million transactions. There were also 8.7 million deployments of smart contracts, and the turnover of stablecoin transfers reached $8 trillion – an all-time quarterly record.