Crypto Whale Goes on ETH Buying Spree Following Market Plunge – Is a Rally Coming?
A shadowy high-roller just made a massive Ethereum play while weak hands panicked. Here's why it matters.
The whale move: While retail traders hyperventilated over the latest crypto dip, an anonymous wallet scooped up enough ETH to make a small country reconsider its monetary policy. No hesitation—just cold, calculated accumulation.
Market mechanics at work: This isn't some degen gambler. The precision timing suggests either insider knowledge (shocking in crypto!) or someone who actually understands support levels. Either way, it's a bullish signal wrapped in blockchain anonymity.
The cynical take: Of course this happens right after mainstream media ran their 'Crypto Winter 2.0' headlines. The whales feed on fear—and your sell orders are their lunch.
Bottom line: When mysterious money flows into ETH during bloodshed, smart traders pay attention. The rest will FOMO in after the 30% pump.
Large-scale ETH owners are cautious about taking profits, instead increasing their position and moving liquidity into DeFi. | Source: CryptoQuant
Whales have also switched from panic-selling and liquidation to ongoing slow accumulation with the expectation of long-term ETH growth. Overall, whales have switched to accumulation since the end of 2024, with relatively small profit-taking in the past weeks.
ETH shows signs of local lows
The buying activity sets up expectations that ETH may be done with its downward correction, after nearly $80M in long liquidations in the past 24 hours.
ETH open interest fell over the weekend following market volatility and liquidatoins, sliding to $14B from a recent level of $16B. Long positions are still over 75% of open interest, suggesting more liquidations could be instore.
ETH traded at $2,239.78, sliding under its recent range. However, even ETH price crashes have led to additional buying from whales, with the goal of achieving a lower average price. ETH also rebounded from its lows against Bitcoin, once again returning to 0.022 BTC.
Ethereum holders flock to big DeFi protocols
Ethereum is becoming the playground of whales, with liquidity flowing to the top protocols.
Based on DeFiLlama data, the Ethereum chain now locks around $57B in total value, with $125.67M in stablecoins.
However, DeFi protocols are dominated by the three big sources of ETH passive income. LidoDAO holds over $20B, while AAVE returned above $19B TVL. EigenLayer holds over $10B in ETH.
The other DeFi protocols holding over $5B in value include Ethena, Ether.Fi and Spark. Lending remains NEAR its peak, leading to whale accumulation and deposits into major protocols. ETH accumulation also follows the recent Pectra upgrade, as whales prepared for running the new larger nodes requiring 2,048 ETH.
At the current price range, DeFi remains relatively SAFE from liquidations. Whales have rebuild lending positions with a high accumulation of liquidable loans at around $1,600, and another significant accumulation just above $1,000.
For ETH, the current price action suggests more dips are possible, with most of the liquidable long positions at around $2,100. Liquidating short positions could bring ETH back above $2,300. For now, the overwhelming attitude for ETH is bearish, though still allowing for the occasional whale accumulation.
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