Ether’s Billionaire Addresses At Record High As Whales Load Up ETH, Disregarding Gloomy Price Action

Big Ethereum investors, known as whales, have continued to add more coins to their holdings, despite the price action of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization being chaotic over the last couple of months.

ETH Whales Fill Up Their Bags

A recent downturn in the crypto markets has caused panic selling among many investors. With no signs of de-escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, prices have tumbled across the board.

However, negative sentiment generally provides other investors a chance to make profits, and Ethereum whales have been taking advantage of the uncertainty to accumulate tokens at a discount.

Ethereum’s whale-tire addresses — wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million ETH — remain high despite the price of the asset correcting by over 48% from the November record highs, data provided by on-chain behavior analytics platform Santiment shows. These whales have actually accumulated 2.2% more of the supply in the past six months.

The relentless interest by big Ethereum investors may be an indication of good times ahead, assuming the broader crypto market finds a footing.

Sentiment Remains Negative

Ether is changing hands at $2,616.60 as of publication time. Given the ongoing complex geopolitical events, the soaring inflation, and an imminent Fed rate hike, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies may even head lower in the near term.

ETHUSD Chart by TradingView

The bitcoin Fear & Greed Index, which measures the mood among crypto traders, has entered “extreme fear” territory — indicating an uptick in bearish sentiment.

The outlook became more gloomy following news that Andre Cronje, one of decentralized finance’s (DeFi) most prolific developers, was leaving the industry. Cryptocurrencies associated with Cronje’s projects such as Fantom (FTM) and Yearn Finance tumbled as much as 17% over the past 24 hours as the market reacted violently to his surprising exit.