Ethereum Whales Show Sustained Accumulation, On-Chain Data Shows

Data from blockchain analysis firm Santiment indicates that ETH whales have been accumulating over the past two weeks. They have broken out of a sustained ownership downtrend since the start of the year, and are now back to owning over 12% of the supply.

• ETH whales, in this context, are defined as addresses holding between 1000 and 10,000 ETH. That’s between about $3 million and $30 million worth of ETH, at current prices.
• As of Thursday, whale ownership sat at 12.07% of ETH supply, up from 11.92% about 10 days earlier.
• Whales have hardly shown any sustained accumulation in months. Though concentration among wealthy holders surged in December, it has steadily declined since then.
• Typically, accumulation is associated with higher prices, as it means a given cryptocurrency has become more scarce for the market. In October, Bitcoin’s price immediately broke higher after what appeared to be a $1.6 billion whale buy.
• However, ETH’s price is yet to react positively, still in the midst of a week-long decline. Generally, ETH’s price is still tightly correlated with Bitcoin’s.

Ethereum Whale Ownership Concentration. Source: Santiment