Ethereum Traders Go Full Bull Mode—Long Positions Spike as Whales Hoard ETH
Market sentiment flips greedy as ETH traders ditch caution for leveraged longs. Spot markets see heavy accumulation—because nothing says ’trust the process’ like doubling down before a potential dump.
Key moves: Open interest surges, funding rates turn positive, and OTC desks report institutional-sized buys. Meanwhile, retail FOMO kicks in right on schedule.
The playbook’s familiar: whales load up, leverage builds, and someone eventually gets rekt. But hey—this time it’s different, right?
Ethereum whales switch to spot accumulation
In the past day, accumulation was noted from prominent funds, in addition to anonymous whale wallets. DeFi traders used their accumulated stablecoins, spending DAI and USDT to acquire ETH at $1,993.8.
2 wallets, likely from one entity, spent $14.54M $DAI and $USDT to buy 7,293.44 $ETH at a price of $1,993.8.
Addresses:
– 0xef9fc75f3eac4baf72e0de24c8677187523e85c6
– 0xdf72beb504df8612e7594a4878e23461c5fde34e
Data @nansen_ai pic.twitter.com/sk070LKX5q
— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) May 8, 2025
In addition to the whales, Abraxas Capital extended its withdrawals, building up a reserve of ETH tokens. The latest withdrawal for Binance was for 2.3K ETH. The large-scale withdrawals and accumulation took around 50,000 ETH from exchanges in the past day. Holding ETH in private wallets happened after the ethereum Pectra upgrade, which allows for easier staking of 2,048 ETH in one deposit.
ETH exchange reserves remain low at around 8.4M tokens on spot exchanges, and around 10M ETH on derivative markets. Demand from ETF remains uncertain, with days of net inflows and outflows shifting direction without warning. ETH scarcity is not as pressing as that of BTC.
The recent rounds of buying follow a capitulation even from some of the earliest ETH holders. Recently, an ICO buyer liquidated more than 7,200 ETH. However, in the past day, sentiment shifted to decisively bullish for smart money, expecting a breakout for ETH after weeks of trading at a lower range.
Ethereum traders switch to long positions
On derivative markets, ETH traders quickly accumulated larger open positions. Overall open interest on leading centralized markets jumped to over $11B within hours, from recent lows around $9B.
The recent recovery of ETH above $1,900 allowed trades to open more long positions in the $1,700 range. Trader behavior shows bullish expectations, but may also lead to liquidations in the case of an unexpected market downturn.
A risk-taking whale also returned to Hyperliquid. The whale deposited over $14.5M USDC to open a long position on ETH. In the past day, the position was in the green, accruing unrealized profits of $500K to over $600K at one point.
The whale kept the position as ETH broke out to $2,001.05, breaking the price tier for the first time since March 10. ETH trading activity picked up during the early US trading hours, as BTC continued on its path to reclaim $100,000.
The ETH rally follows the Pectra upgrade, which is expected to become a bullish factor and boost both usage and trading activity on Ethereum. Briefly after the Pectra upgrade, the Ethereum network turned deflationary, as more coins were burned for gas. Increased activity also pushed fees to $0.80, from recent lows of $0.01, with swap prices on DEX rising to over $13.
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