Ethereum Whale Alert: Record-Breaking Buying Spree Mirrors 2017 Mania
Whales are circling Ethereum again—and this feeding frenzy looks bigger than anything since the ICO craze.
When the big money moves, markets tremble
Blockchain analytics show Ethereum's whale tier—wallets holding 10,000+ ETH—are accumulating at a pace not seen since December 2017. That's right, back when your barista was explaining smart contracts between latte art sessions.
What's fueling the buying? Three theories:
1. Institutional FOMO hitting critical mass
2. Staking yields juicier than Treasury bonds
3. Old-fashioned speculation (with extra leverage)
The cynical take? Maybe Wall Street finally realized crypto's the only casino where they can't get bailed out. Whatever the reason, when whales this size move, the whole ecosystem feels the waves.
Ethereum Whales Have Been Buying Big
According to data from the on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, the Ethereum whales have been participating in a very significant amount of accumulation during the past week.
‘Whales‘ refer to the the ETH investors holding between 1,000 and 10,000 tokens of the cryptocurrency. At the current exchange this range converts to about $2.5 million at the lower end and $25 million at the upper one.
While this range doesn’t cover the absolute top end of the market, it still includes humongous investors who may be considered a key part of the ecosystem. As such, considering this role, the movements related to these holders could be worth monitoring.
One way to watch the behavior of the whales is through the total amount of the Ethereum supply held by them. Below is the chart shared by Glassnode that shows the trend in this metric over the past few months.
As is visible in the graph, the supply of the Ethereum whales has recently shot up, a sign that big-money investors have been accumulating the cryptocurrency. “For nearly a week, daily whale accumulation has exceeded 800K ETH, pushing holdings in 1k–10k wallets to >14.3M ETH,” notes the analytics firm.
From the chart, it’s apparent that a particularly large spike occurred on June 12th. On this date, the ETH whales added more than 871,000 ETH to their holdings, the highest daily inflow for the cohort year-to-date.
The latest accumulation spree isn’t just notable in terms of the year, but rather also impressive in a historical context. “This scale of buying hasn’t been seen since 2017,” says Glassnode. Naturally, the extraordinary buying push from these investors could be a potential indication that they are confident about the future of the coin.
While this strong accumulation activity has been spotted on-chain, another side of the sector has also seen demand: the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The spot ETFs are investment vehicles that provide a way for investors to get exposure to Ethereum without directly owning the asset.
The spot ETFs trade on traditional exchanges, so holders not familiar with cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges can find it easier to invest into the coin through them.
There has been some high demand for the US ETH spot ETFs lately, as the netflow chart shared by Glassnode in an X post showcases.
“Last week saw 195.32K ETH FLOW into US Spot ETH ETFs – the third-largest weekly net inflow on record,” explains the analytics firm.
ETH Price
Ethereum set its eyes on $2,700 on Monday, but it seems the price has taken a bearish turn since then as it’s now trading around $2,470.
