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Crypto enthusiasts with significant holdings, known as whales, have recently been accumulating Lido (LDO) tokens in preparation for the release of staked Ethereum from the Lido platform.
On May 16, on-chain analytics platform ‘Lookonchain’ identified three whale accounts that have been actively accumulating LDO tokens.
“During the past week, we observed three whale accounts accumulating LDO tokens due to the launch of Lido V2,” reported the platform.
The accumulation activity by the whales includes one address that withdrew 724,822 LDO tokens valued at approximately $1.52 million from Binance at a price of $2.01. Another whale withdrew 655,641 LDO tokens worth $1.38 million from Binance at a rate of $1.83.
The third whale purchased 570,883 LDO tokens using 974,000 USDC at a price of $1.71 on May 12.
In addition to the whale activity, LDO prices have shown significant movements in contrast to the overall market trend over the past few days.
Due to the launch of Lido V2, we noticed 3 whales accumulating $LDO in the past week.
– 0x9EA7 withdrew 724,822 $LDO($1.52M) from #Binance at $2.01.
– 0x4E4e withdrew 655,641 $LDO($1.38M) from #Binance at $1.83.
– 0x9eda bought 570,883 $LDO with 974K $USDC at $1.71 on May 12. pic.twitter.com/S0cNUxpLw0
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 16, 2023
Staked Ethereum withdrawals have now been enabled on the Lido platform following the V2 upgrade, which took place on May 15.
Lido announced that the V2 upgrade introduces two major components, with the most notable being the ability for users to withdraw their staked Ethereum (stETH or wstETH) tokens in exchange for ETH. Lido clarified that the withdrawal process may take anywhere from one to five days.
Furthermore, the V2 upgrade includes a modular staking router to encourage staking diversity among different groups, including individual stakers, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) clusters.
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According to Nansen’s Shapella dashboard, there are currently more ETH deposits than withdrawals, although it does not yet account for deposits made through Lido, representing 29% of the total staked ETH.
Currently, deposits continue to outpace withdrawals, with a total of approximately 18.3 million ETH locked in, accounting for 15.2% of the entire supply and valued at approximately $33 billion.
The price of the Lido DAO token (LDO) has surged by 8% today, reaching $2.11 at the time of writing. LDO has gained 15% in value over the past week leading up to the V2 launch.
LDO has performed admirably as a crypto asset this year, showing a growth of 122% since January 1.
In contrast, Ethereum prices have been relatively stagnant recently, experiencing a 1% decline today, trading at $1,811 at the time of writing. The broader cryptocurrency markets have been in a downtrend for the past month, which is expected to continue soon.