Ethereum Whales Go on a Buying Spree: Sharplink & Ether Machine Fuel ETH Accumulation Frenzy

Whales are doubling down on Ethereum—and this isn't your average accumulation phase. Two names dominate the surge: Sharplink and Ether Machine, entities moving stacks of ETH like it's going out of style (which, given crypto's volatility, it might).

Behind the buying spree: A mix of strategic positioning and speculative frenzy. While retail traders chase memecoins, these players are quietly loading up on the second-largest crypto by market cap.

The irony? This whale activity comes as traditional finance pundits still dismiss crypto as 'a bubble'—right before their third missed generational wealth event.

• Ethereum whales and institutions accumulated over $1.2B in ETH in July alone, signaling strong bullish conviction.
• Arkham tracked major OTC deals, including one whale buying $300M in 3 days and another scooping 138,000 ETH worth $500M.
• ETF inflows surge, with U.S. ETH ETFs seeing $727M in one-day inflows and $9.49B total net inflows by August 1.

Ethereum (ETH) sees a tremendous accumulation wave, spearheaded by crypto whales and institutions, implying strong bullish sentiment despite the volatility witnessed recently.

In-chain analytics company Onchain Lens highlighted two addresses that received 43,000 ETH combined, valued at more than $153 million. At the same time, SharpLink Gaming maintained its treasury with 18,860 ETH, valued at about $66.6 million, putting its 48-hour accumulation at 30,755 ETH, or about $106 million.

In the meantime, Ether Reserve LLC, owned by The Ether Machine, acquired 10,600 ETH for approximately $40 million at an average rate of $3,781 per coin.

Another notable transaction followed from a recently activated wallet (0x86F911), which got 24,294 ETH through FalconX, equalling $86.5 million, as Whale Alert reported another whale address (0x40e912) receiving 18,675 ETH from Digital Galaxy, which translated into $67 million.

Massive Ethereum Whale Buys Spark Bullish Momentum

Adding further traction, a Web3 key opinion leader reported that one unidentified institution purchased $50 million of ETH through an over-the-counter (OTC) transaction. Significantly, Arkham Intelligence reported one whale stacking $300 million of ETH over three days.

Arkham also monitored another big OTC transaction of 108,278 ETH for $284 million on June 4, followed by smaller whale movements in early June, such as a $320 million transfer of ETH to a Consensys-linked wallet from Galaxy Digital.

In the final days of June, whale action accelerated with a significant purchase of 30,000 ETH ($73 million) on June 21, followed by another 17,070 ETH ($39 million) on June 22, pushing the total holdings of one such whale to 132,536 ETH, which amounted to over $303 million.

Whale activity had no intention of letting up in July. A massive investor acquired 34,033 ETH on July 21 for $128.6 million, only to spend July 25 purchasing a mind-boggling 60,646 ETH ($226 million). Another account received 30,366 ETH two days later, boosting the whale accumulation journal by another $115 million.

Crypto analyst Ash Crypto pointed out that a whale had amassed 138,000 ETH, which equates to around $500 million, over seven days, including on one day when it had bought 32,368 ETH for $118 million.

Even on July 31, when there was panic selling due to Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s statement, there was hope for the whales. A whale purchased the dip, acquiring 39,652 ETH for $153 million.

Ethereum Faces Major Short Squeeze

As reported by The Kobeissi Letter, ethereum may be experiencing “one of the biggest short squeezes in crypto history.” The outlet estimated that a 10% ETH rally would liquidate as much as $1 billion of shorts, leading prices well into the $4,000+ region.

Institutional demand rises at the same time. Glassnode said that U.S.-based ETH ETFs had one-day inflows of $727 million in mid-July. Through August 1, SosoValue verified that U.S. ETH ETFs had net cumulative inflows of $9.49 billion, with total assets under management of over $20 billion.

From July 28 through August 1, ETH spot ETFs had a net inflow of $154 million, solely led by the ETHA fund. The net asset percentage of Ethereum ETFs has now reached 4.7%, which shows increased institutional belief in Ethereum’s upside potential.