Crypto Whales Went Bargain Hunting After August’s Market Plunge—Here’s What They Snapped Up

Crypto's big players didn't just weather August's storm—they feasted on discounted assets. While retail investors panicked, whales loaded their bags with strategic buys. Here's where the smart money flowed when blood hit the streets.

The Blue-Chip Bonanza

Bitcoin and Ethereum saw record whale accumulation at prices 20-30% below July's ATHs. Because nothing pleases a crypto oligarch like buying the dip with other people's fear.

Altcoin Alley Gets a Surprise Visitor

Usually risk-averse whales suddenly piled into select altcoins—particularly DeFi tokens and layer-2 solutions. Guess even they couldn't resist some lottery tickets at fire-sale prices.

The Stablecoin Shell Game

Billions flowed into USDC and USDT during peak volatility. Because when the going gets tough, the tough... temporarily park funds in pretend dollars.

As always, the whales' moves reveal their ultimate strategy: buy when there's blood in the water, sell when CNBC starts talking about blockchain. The cycle continues—just with more zeros on their balances this time.

Crypto Whales Turn to Meme Сoins

This summer turned into an unofficial meme coin season. Following the explosive rise of Useless Coin (USELESS), a meme coin on Solana, launched through LetsBonk.Fun, large players started paying attention. USELESS became a symbol of the Pump.Fun vs LetsBonk.Fun rivalry — and LetsBonk.Fun even surpassed its competitor in volume, revenue, and other metrics. As its name suggests, LetsBonk.Fun traces its roots to the older meme coin Bonk (BONK).

The growth of the LetsBonk.Fun ecosystem mirrored BONK’s performance. In July, BONK surged to nearly $0.00004, gaining around 200% in one month. But by early August, the price had corrected back to $0.000023 — a roughly 40% decline from the peak.

On-chain data shows that whales used this drop to accumulate BONK. The expansion of LetsBonk.Fun seems to have injected fresh Optimism into the meme coin. On Aug. 5 alone, over $600,000 in smart money flowed into BONK.

$BONK @bonk_inu is the most bought token by smart money in the last 24 hours pic.twitter.com/6mPQSRgHf0

Ethereum vs. Bitcoin: Where Is Smart Capital Going?

Bitcoin remains a long-time favorite among crypto whales, especially with companies like MicroStrategy making regular BTC purchases. But Ethereum’s July rally seems to have shifted the narrative — at least slightly.

Both BTC and ETH experienced corrections, and ETF flows suggest investors are cautious. Still, their trading volumes are closer than expected. Bitcoin still leads, due to its larger market cap, but not by much.

As of Aug. 6, BTC’s trading volume stood at $288 billion, while ETH reached $211 billion, according to Token Terminal. Ethereum gained nearly 50% in July, while Bitcoin stayed flat — raising the question of whether capital is starting to rotate elsewhere.

One whale, for example, accumulated 101,131 ETH during the dip — worth over $350 million at current prices.

A whale/institution created 4 wallets and accumulated 101,131 $ETH($361M) from #FalconX, #GalaxyDigital, and #BitGo in the past 2 days.https://t.co/dacATlg23Chttps://t.co/pcE5bknETOhttps://t.co/LPOL8Hx74Nhttps://t.co/dZHgqOsXMs pic.twitter.com/VtwciLFcKB

Mantle’s Return?

Mantle (MNT), an Ethereum LAYER 2 network, is making a comeback. After a quiet stretch, both the project and its native token are back in the spotlight. MNT was launched in 2023 and has seen a few sharp rallies, followed by corrections. But in July, the price jumped from $0.56 to $0.94 by Aug. 6 — a gain of roughly 68%.

Network metrics also point to increased activity. According to Nansen, Mantle ranked second in active user growth over the past 30 days. Both transaction volume and network fees rose, signaling renewed usage. Mantle even outperformed its competitor Arbitrum (ARB) in user growth, though both posted similar fee volumes.

This could suggest that Ethereum L2s are finally getting the investor attention they’ve been waiting for.

Prominent figures in crypto are also promoting Mantle. One example is Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit.

Big things are happening to mantle, l tune in to my “H1 2025 Keynote” tomorrow, will disclose all the alpha. https://t.co/5Eh1ImKt10 https://t.co/AZDhWiBF9T

In addition, Mantle’s stablecoin market cap is rising — another sign of capital inflows.

Money is flowing into Mantle(@Mantle_Official) — stablecoin macp on Mantle has surged 22.85% in the past 7 days, reaching $653.51M.

Mantle (@Mantle_Official) is now listed on the Strategic ETH Reserve and contributes 101,867 $ETH($388M).

Meanwhile, $MNT is up nearly 25% today. pic.twitter.com/jIlfTQmNdL

Conclusion

Crypto whales didn’t sit out the August dip — they acted. From meme coins to Layer 2 plays and ETH accumulation, whales made bold bets. While retail investors hesitated, larger players seemed to treat this correction as a buying opportunity. The question now is whether those moves will pay off — or if more turbulence lies ahead.