Why Ethereum’s crypto whale holdings increased 27% in 14 months

• The past few months have been marked by an uptick in ETH whale activity.
• Since the SEC approved ETH spot ETF, there has been a rally in daily whale transfers.

Ethereum [ETH] has witnessed a surge in whale activity in the past few months, Santiment noted in a newly published report. 

According to the on-chain data provider, the recent uptick in whale activity has been fueled by rumors and the eventual approval of spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

On the 23rd of May, the regulator approved 19b-4 forms for the ETF applications filed by BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Bitwise, VanEck, Ark, Invesco Galaxy, and Franklin Templeton.

This approval came unexpectedly after an extended refusal to communicate with issuers. 

ETH whales take charge

Per Santiment’s report, over the past 14 months, whale wallets that hold at least 10,000 ETH coins have increased their cumulative holdings by 27%.

This cohort of ETH holders bought 21.39 million ETH, valued at $83 billion, at current market prices during that period. 

According to Santiment,

“Ethereum has even gained on Bitcoin (by percentage) over the past month after the rumors and eventual approval of the first Spot ETH ETFs were announced by the SEC. So it’s no surprise to see that the whale accumulation has not come to an end.”

Regarding daily whale transactions involving ETH, the on-chain data provider noted that after last week’s spot ETF approval, the number of ETH whale transactions exceeding $100,000 and $1 million surged to YTD highs.

On that day, the number of ETH transactions valued above $100,000 reached 7,649, while those exceeding $1 million totaled 1,252.

Source: Santiment

This surge was due to an uptick in profit-taking activity among the coin’s large holders. Santiment noted,

“This was clearly an opportunity that whales saw to profit take. However, prices may continue to outperform Bitcoin as long as these 10K+ ETH wallets are still moving north instead of south through this volatility.”

ETH holders book gains

Amid the growth in whale activity since last week’s approval, daily transactions involving ETH have been profitable.

AMBCrypto assessed the daily ratio of the altcoin’s transaction volume in profit to loss (using a seven-day moving average) and found that it was 1.87.

Source: Santiment

Is your portfolio green? Check out the ETH Profit Calculator

This meant that for every ETH transaction that ended in a loss in the last week, 1.87 transactions returned a profit. 

At press time, the altcoin exchanged hands at $3,865, according to CoinMarketCap’s data.