- 23 April saw Ethereum surge past the $1,800 zone on the back of strong buying interest from the whales.
- Ethereum’s rally to the $1,800 zone came on the heels of strong whale transactions on the bullish side.
- On the other hand, while some whales are accumulating, others are moving large amounts of ETH off exchanges.
Ethereum is making waves once again in the crypto market in terms of price and whale accumulation. 23rd April saw the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap surge past the $1,800 zone on the back of strong buying interest from the whales.
However, while the ongoing price increase is a sign of strong buying interest from the whales, a series of large transactions are also hinting that a strong market shift could be incoming. Here are some more details about what has been going on with Ethereum and what roles the whales are currently playing as its price rallies.
Whale Activity Creates Optimism
Ethereum’s rally to the $1,800 zone came on the heels of strong whale transactions. One of these wallets, 0xD20E withdrew as much as 5,531 ETH (worth $9.8 million) from Binance, according to insights from LookOnChain. On the other hand, another address, 0x2088 swapped 4.61 million USDC for 2,568 ETH at an average price of $1,794.
These types of transactions are typically interpreted as bullish, especially when funds are moved off exchanges. When whales pull their money off exchanges, it shows that they plan to hold on to it, rather than sell.
These moves from these large players have caused a surge in trading volume for Ethereum so far, with Binance seeing its ETH/USDT pair jump from 200,000 ETH to 250,000 ETH traded within an hour. The ETH/BTC pair also spiked by 15% according to Coinbase, in a show of renewed interest in crypto beyond stablecoins.
Technical Indicators Signal Short-Term Momentum
The ongoing performance of Bitcoin’s biggest competitor isn’t just about buying power from the whales alone. Technical indicators also support the ongoing bullish narrative, for now at least. According to the RSI readings of 72/100 on the daily chart, Ethereum is now strongly in bullish territory.
The MACD has also crossed above the convergence line, confirming the outlook of bullish dominance for Ethereum. In addition, Glassnode data shows that the number of active Ethereum addresses has risen by as much as 10% in the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, the TVL in Ethereum’s DeFi protocols has climbed to about $50 billion, in a strong indication that investor interest in Ethereum’s ecosystem is still strong.
Warning Signs Amid Profit-Taking
While things have been positive for Ethereum so far, not all its recent activity has pointed in the same direction. While some whales are accumulating, others are moving large amounts of ETH off exchanges. Interestingly, a wallet tied to the Ethereum Foundation sent 1,000 ETH (roughly $1.58 million) to Kraken.
In addition to these, Paradigm also recently moved 5,500 ETH ($8.66 million) to Anchorage after moving a total of 96,955 ETH (valued at over $302 million) in the past year. LookOnChain also noted in a recent update that a certain whale borrowed 15,000 ETH from Aave sometime this week and dumped it for $24.9M at an average price of $1,660.
The interesting thing about this whale’s sentiment towards Ethereum is that aside from the original 15,000 ETH, they also withdrew all 35,754 ETH ($64.13M) from Aave and dumped it all at an average price of around $1,794 within 3 hours on Wednesday. While these moves from the whales aren’t an outright bearish signal, they do raise fears of an incoming sell-off.
At publication, ETH’s value hovers around $1,794 after gaining about 2.13% over the past day. According to analyst World of Charts, Ethereum still “has a long way to go” towards the upside. In the short term, however, Ethereum is in a very important position, and traders should remain on alert.
