Ether whales get busy as transactions hit highest point since January

Published at: May 12, 2022

Despite widespread losses being posted throughout the crypto market, Ether whales have been busy buying and selling Ether (ETH) at a rate not seen since January this year.

According to data from Santiment, Ether whales made a total of 2,956 transactions, each valued at over $1 million on Wednesday, marking the highest day of whale transactions in nearly five months. Santiment clarified that whales are typically defined as any account holding between $1 million to $10 million.

#Ethereum's whales have been extremely active today, firing off 2,596 transactions valued at $1M or more. This is the highest day of whale transactions since January, and something to monitor if $ETH drops below $2k for the first time since last July. https://t.co/FZoTsFJwEn pic.twitter.com/MVFEpzysxN

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) May 11, 2022

The data comes as the ETH/Bitcoin (BTC) pairing also continues its display of relative strength, despite the Terra-based contagion that continues to put downward pressure on the market and general sentiment.

Earlier this week, on May 6, ETH/BTC reached a three-week high. According to market analysis from Cointelegraph, the paring is hinting at a potential breakout, particularly as both Bitcoin and Ether approach what Santiment has called their “historic buy zones.”

Notably, Ether has grown by nearly 250% against Bitcoin since the Beacon Chain went live, marking the beginning of its migration to proof-of-stake in December 2020.

It isn’t just the Ether whales that have been busy either. According to data from Glassnode, Wednesday also marked the largest one-day transfer of Bitcoin from Whale Entities to exchanges.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Carlos Gomez, chief investment officer at Belobaba crypto hedge fund, said that this type of market activity may mean crypto investors are closer to the bottom of the current market dip than they realize.

Isn’t it clear enough? pic.twitter.com/PQwfb6Eu4z

— Carlos Gomez (@hedgefundcarlos) May 11, 2022

Gomez said that the above graph shows a “clearly coordinated movement of most of the large holders in a specific 24-hour-window,” meaning that whales are continuing to hunt for weak hands.

Gomez added that it’s hard to say whether or not the bottom is well and truly in, but he suggested that “recent evidence shows that we’re not too far from it — the only thing is, we may have to live down here at these levels for a few weeks before going up again.”