Why are Ethereum whales buying millions of dollars worth of ETH?

On-chain data shows that Ethereum whales are waiting for a rally and are actively buying the coin

According to on-chain analysts, several large holders have purchased Ethereum over the past week, taking advantage of a period of high volatility.

What did the Ethereum whales do?

On January 5, the Spot On Chain Twitter account, which tracks changes in on-chain metrics, reported that the famous whale “0x9314” spent $48 million to purchase 21,192 ETH at an average price of $2,265 per coin. This whale began buying ETH in January last year and has since purchased almost 80,000 coins, mostly on decentralized exchanges (DEX) and Binance, at an average price of $1,790.

He financed his purchases with loans that he took out on the DeFi protocols Aave and Liquidity, while over the year his investments brought him a profit of 26% or over $36.84 million.

LookOnChain, another Twitter account tracking on-chain activity, has identified two more whales that have purchased significant amounts of BTC and ETH after the recent price drawdown. According to analysts, collectively they bought more than 1,300 ETH at a price of $2,225.

Whales Accumulate Ethereum. Source: Santiment

On-chain analytics provider Santiment has confirmed that Ethereum's largest holders are rapidly accumulating the cryptocurrency. Company experts reported that the 150 largest wallets hold more than 56 million ETH, which is a historical maximum.

“It is noteworthy that the largest non-exchange ETH whales are accumulating coins at a rapid pace, while the amount of ETH in exchange wallets is not growing,” Santiment added.

What's happening with ETH

The increase in whale activity has raised hopes for Ethereum to grow in the near future.

“Ethereum support and resistance have switched places! All eyes are on the SEC's decision on a Bitcoin spot ETF, but little do they know that ETH will soon have a spot ETF too! The coin is still undervalued,” wrote technical analyst CryptoBusy.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has until February 6 to make a decision on Ethereum spot ETF applications from Invesco and Galaxy.

The charts show that since the beginning of the year, ETH has stabilized above $2,150. Today ETH is trading near $2,240. Over the course of a day, the coin remained almost unchanged in price, and over the week it fell by 2.7%.

Ethereum rate. Source: CoinGeko

In 2023, Ethereum lagged behind other major altcoins such as Solana. It rose in price by 90%, while BTC and SOL showed triple-digit growth.

Market Analysts Remain Positive on ETH. For example, asset manager VanEck believes that by 2030 the price of the coin could exceed $50,000.

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