Ethereum Whales Rapidly Accumulate ETH Amid Price Decline

Ethereum whales have been busy in the market, as on-chain data shows that these investors have been heavily accumulating the second-largest crypto token by market cap. This comes amid a price decline in ETH’s price, with history suggesting that the crypto token might suffer more price declines in the short term. 

Data from the market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock shows that Ethereum Whales bought 297,670 ETH ($1 billion) on July 24. The previous day, these whales also bought almost 400,000 ETH. Further data shows an increase of over 28% in the inflows into these whales’ addresses in the last seven days.  

The decline in outflows from these addresses further highlights these investors’ bullish sentiment towards Ethereum despite its underperformance. Outflows from these accounts have declined by over 14% in the last seven days and down by over 16% in the last 30 days. 

The large holders’ netflow metric on IntoTheBlock also highlights this wave of accumulation among Ethereum whales, as net flows have increased by over 313%. This means that these investors are heavily accumulating rather than opting to sell their ETH holdings. 

On-chain analytics platform Santiment noted that this significant increase in ETH’s whale activity is due to the Spot Ethereum ETFs, which began trading on July 23. The platform made this observation while revealing that since July 17, the amount of ETH transfers has exceeded over $100,000 in value, which is over 64% higher than the number of BTC transfers and over 126% higher than the USDT transfers on the Ethereum network. 

The Spot Ethereum ETFs had undoubtedly presented a bullish outlook for Ethereum even before they launched, as crypto analysts like RLinda predicted that ETH could rise to $4,000 thanks to these funds. As such, it is no surprise that Ethereum whales continue to accumulate the crypto token in anticipation of higher prices from ETH. 

The Spot Ethereum ETFs were projected to be the catalyst that would spark a massive rally in ETH’s price, and that is likely to happen at some point. However, history suggests these funds may act as a headwind for Ethereum at first, similar to the fate that Bitcoin suffered immediately after the Spot Bitcoin ETFs launched earlier this year. 

Bitcoin experienced significant price declines, largely thanks to the outflows from Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). A similar situation is already playing out for ETH with Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust (ETHE). Interestingly, Grayscale’s ETHE experienced a net outflow of $484.1 million on day 1 of trading, much larger than the net outflows GBTC experienced on day 1, and GBTC is bigger. 

Considering this, Ethereum could face significant selling pressure from Grayscale’s ETHE. Data from Farside Investors shows that the Spot Ethereum ETF experienced a net outflow of $326.9 million on July 24 (day 2), likely just the start of the massive outflows that could eventually pour out from the fund.