Three large Ethereum ($ETH) holders, colloquially known as “whales,” have withdrawn a combined total of over $64 million worth of the cryptocurrency from centralized exchanges in over the last six days.
One notable withdrawal involved 14,632 ETH, valued at approximately $45.5 million, from leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance. According to on-chain analysis service Lookonchain, which first reported on the transactions, this whale staked the entire amount, potentially indicating a long-term bullish stance on Ethereum’s future.
Staking sees ETH holders participating in the network’s Proof-of-Stake consensus as validators, where they receive rewards for helping validate transactions on the network. These rewards come from the issuance of Ethereum, which is offset by the burning of the basefee in transactions.
Further adding to the recent activity, Lookonchain identified two additional whale wallets that transferred a combined 6,000 ETH, worth roughly $18.7 million, from popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken over a two-day period.
Separately, Lookonchain tracked the buying activity of another whale who accumulated 2,000 ETH, valued at $6.2 million, from Kraken on Monday. This particular whale has been steadily adding to their Ethereum holdings since May 2023, accumulating a total of 26,380 ETH at an average price of $2,255 per ETH.
With the current price hovering around $3,230, their stash is now valued at over $85.2 million, representing an unrealized profit of more than $26 million.
Notably, an investor who participated in Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO) back in 2014 has recently resurfaced to move half of their entire stash of ETH onto popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken after being inactive for nearly nine years.
The move came after the Ethereum investor purchased 3,465 ETH at around $0.31 per token during the initial coin offering. Their purchase is now worth over $11 million after appreciating more than 1,000,000%.
These whale movements come at a time in which the Beacon Chain’s staked Ether reached 30.2 million ETH, which means that around a quarter of Ethereum’s circulating supply is now locked and securing the network, with over 940,000 active validators contributing to the network’s security and decentralization.
The decreasing available supply is expected to further drive Ethereum’s price upwards. According to data from Ultrasound money, Ethereum’s supply is currently dropping at a rate of around 0.5% per year. This decrease has led to a drop of 11,500 ETH in circulating supply over the past week.
Moreover, the anticipation of the approval of a spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) this year is building momentum. Leading financial institutions, including Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, and Fidelity, have filed to launch spot Ether ETFs, which would allow investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without directly having a wallet.
On top of all this, Ethereum is nearing its proto-danksharding upgrade, which is set to help dramatically reduce transaction costs on the network. The upgrade has gone live on three testnets and is set to go live on the mainnet around March 13.
Featured image via Unsplash.
