The cryptocurrency market capitalization continued to rise over the weekend. The chart turned green, and the market capitalization reached $4 trillion in the early Asian trading hours. This represents a 1.54% increase over the past 24 hours.
As major cryptocurrencies approach all-time highs, crypto whales are showing significant movements in the market. The largest transaction amounted to $210 million. Here's a detailed analysis of whale transactions.
Crypto Whales Trade Millions in Bull Market
According to on-chain data, whales are actively trading $ETH. Interest in the second-largest cryptocurrency continues to rise, as it is only 11.8% away from its all-time high (ATH).
According to data from Onchain Lens, the largest transaction was a whale or institutional investor purchasing 49,533 $ETH for $210.68 million through Galaxy Digital, Falcon X, and Bitgo exchanges.
Ethereum whales currently hold 221,166 $ETH, valued at $940.73 million. These assets are distributed across six different wallets. Additionally, Maelstrom's CIO, Arthur Hayes, took a more diverse approach. He acquired assets totaling $6.85 million, including:
- 1,250 $ETH, worth $5.29 million.
- 424,000 Lido DAO (LDO), worth $550,000.
- 420,000 Ether.fi (ETHFI), worth $510,000.
- 92,000 Pendle (PENDLE) tokens, worth $500,000.
These purchases reflect a significant addition to his cryptocurrency portfolio, primarily focusing on Ethereum-based assets.
"On August 2nd, he believed BTC would drop to $10,000 and $ETH to $3,000. So he sold $ETH and $ETH ecosystem tokens like ENA, Aave, LDO, ETHFI, and PEPE purchased in July." – Analyst EmberCN wrote.
In addition to purchases, some whales are Staking assets for additional revenue. A whale address 0xA5e…eda0, which was inactive for 3 years, Staked 4,736 $ETH for $19.84 million.
This whale accumulated $ETH for $9.12 million about 4-5 years ago. The investor gained approximately $10.7 million in profits. Similarly, another whale 0x1fc…aed5 withdrew and Staked 2,009 $ETH for $8.53 million from Binance.
"Over the past two months, a total of 10,999 $ETH ($46.69 million) has been withdrawn from Binance and Staked on EigenLayer and $ETH2.0. Currently showing a profit of $13.53 million." – Onchain Lens added.
Separately, some whales executed sales. The 1INCH team investment fund sold 5,000 $ETH at an average price of $4,215, converting to 2,107 USDC.
They also sold 6.45 million 1INCH tokens at an average price of $0.28, earning 1.8 million USDC. These sales generated $8.36 million in profits.
This indicates the team is taking a strategy to realize profits in the current bull market. Stablecoin bank Infini's hackers also sold significant $ETH.
"Infini exploiters sold 1,771 $ETH ($7.44 million) at $4,202 today. On February 24th, they hacked @0xinfini, stealing $49.5 million and purchasing 17,696 $ETH at $2,798. As $ETH rose, they sold 1,770 $ETH ($5.88 million) at $3,321 and sent 4,501 $ETH ($15.03 million) to Tornado Cash on July 17th. They still hold 9,154 $ETH ($38.85 million)." – LookOnChain revealed.
Beyond Ethereum, large investors are also engaging in other cryptocurrencies. Whale 0xc9d…642 borrowed 20 million USDC from Aave, transferred funds to Kraken, and acquired 109.6 WBTC for $12.91 million.
"This whale is using a looping loan strategy to leverage WBTC purchases through Aave. Currently accumulated 603.5 WBTC ($71.62 million) at an average of about $90,382." – EmberCN posted.
After a month of inactivity, another crypto whale withdrew 274.22 Bitcoin (BTC) worth about $32 million from Binance. Additionally, Galaxy Digital transferred 224,000 Solana (SOL) worth approximately $41.12 million to Binance and Coinbase, raising sell-off concerns.
Furthermore, a smart money address withdrew 210,000 LINK from Binance. This address holds a total of 335,000 LINK. Lastly, Nuance CEO Alex Svanvik sent 1 million LDO tokens to Coinbase.
These transactions reflect a mix of profit-taking, long-term Staking, and speculative trading among whales and institutions.
