On-chain data shows that whale activity on the Ethereum blockchain has been quite high recently due to the excitement around spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Ethereum Whales Showing Significantly Higher Activity Than Bitcoin Whales
According to data from on-chain analytics firm SanctionEthereum whales have been showing considerable activity recently. The indicator of relevance here is the “Whale Transaction Count”, which monitors the total amount of transfers happening on any network with a value of at least $100,000.
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Transfers exceeding this amount are generally associated with the whalestherefore, the value of this indicator can provide information about the activity of these huge investors.
When the metric value is high, the blockchain is currently observing a lot of large transactions. Such a trend implies that whales have an active interest in trading the asset.
On the other hand, the low indicator suggests that whales may not be paying much attention to the cryptocurrency as they are not making as many transfers.
Now, here is a chart showing the trend in whale transaction counts for the three major coins in the industry, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT), since the beginning of the year:
As visible in the chart above, the whale transaction count for Ethereum has been the highest among these three assets recently. More specifically, ETH has recorded 77,200 whale transactions since the 17th of this month, notably higher than BTC’s 47,000 or USDT’s 34,100.
The sharp increase in asset activity is likely the excitement surrounding spot ETFs, which, after much anticipation, have finally been released after obtaining approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The whale transaction count suggests that whales had begun to reposition themselves prior to this release. It is difficult to say, however, what type of activity exactly these large holders were engaging in based on this indicator alone.
Given that the event was considered bullish, it would make sense if whales were buying. Data from market intelligence platform Inside the block confirmed that large producers have recently increased their supply.
IntoTheBlock defines “large holders” as investors who own at least 0.1% of the entire Ethereum supply in circulation. From the chart, it is evident that the net flow into the wallets of this group remained positive over the past week, which coincides with the period when whales were active.
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Yesterday alone, large Ethereum holders purchased 112,900 ETH, equivalent to about $391 million at the current exchange rate. “This accumulation notably outpaces the $106 million net inflows into the ETF,” the analytics firm notes.
Ethereum Price
At the time of writing, Ethereum was trading at around $3,460, unchanged from the previous week.
Featured image by Dall-E, IntoTheBlock.com, chart by TradingView.com