The recent crypto market downturn, which sent the prices of popular tokens such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) plunging, has deterred some investors. However, whales remain unfazed by the market-wide losses and have been busy buying and selling Ether, driving high-value ETH transactions to levels not seen since January this year.
Based on data from the market intelligence platform for cryptocurrencies Santiment, Ether whales made a total of 2,956 transactions with a value of over $1 million on Wednesday, Cointelegraph reported. The spike marked the highest day of whale transactions in four months.
“Ethereum's whales have been extremely active today, firing off 2,596 transactions valued at $1M or more,” Santiment tweeted on May 12, 2022. “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.”
Santiment defines whales as investors holding between $1 million to $10 million in crypto. “For many assets, these would be addresses with $100k or more,” the company added. “For Bitcoin and Ethereum, due to the incomparable market cap levels, whales are typically more defined as anywhere between $1M or more, to $10M or more (depending on current price levels).”
Ether is not the only crypto that gained the attention of whales on May 11. Data from Glassnode revealed the largest one-day transfer of Bitcoin from whales to exchanges also happened on the same day.
Belobaba crypto hedge fund Chief Investment Officer Carlos Gomez said that this could mean that the bottom of the current crypto market dip may be close. “Generally means that a large accumulation event by whales took place and that could signal that the bottom is not too far ahead,” Gomez wrote on Twitter.
Sharing a graph from Glassnode showing Bitcoin transfers to exchanges by whales, Gomez interpreted it as a “clearly coordinated movement of most of the large holders in a specific 24-hour-window.” While he admitted that it’s hard to say if the bottom is already here, he pointed out that recent evidence shows “we’re not too far from it.” He expects the crypto market to linger at this level for a couple of weeks before bouncing back up.
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