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The global crypto market crashed 5% on Monday as investors reacted to SEC’s latest lawsuit involving the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance and its CEO, Chanpeng Zhao. However, as the crypto market turbulence rages on, whales have strategically centered focus on a handful of altcoins.
Large institutional investors have started to strategically bet against the negative sentiment surrounding the broader crypto industry. As the recent industry-wide contraction presents an opportunity to buy the dip, here are the leading altcoins attracting investor attention in the last few days.
Crypto Whales Reaffirm Confidence in XRP
With a 17% price surge before the industry-wide retracement on Monday, Ripple (XRP) broke into the list of ten best-performing altcoins. Crypto whales reaffirming their confidence in XRP have been pivotal to the ongoing bull rally.
Between May 30 and June 6, XRP whales holding one million to 10 million coins have doubled down on their bullish stance. The chart below shows how they have added 100 million coins worth nearly $53 million.
Remarkably, the SEC conspicuously excluded Ripple-issued coins from the list of cryptocurrencies labeled as securities in its lawsuit against Binance.
Crypto whales appear to have interpreted this as a further greenlight of a potential victory in Ripple’s much-publicized SEC case.
LidoDAO is Benefitting from the Ethereum DeFi Staking Boom
ETH staked in smart contracts reached a new all-time high in May 2023. This was due to investors embracing passive income opportunities presented by Ethereum’s new proof of stake status.
However, LidoDAO (LDO) — a leading liquidity staking derivatives protocol, has also benefitted from this DeFi staking boom in recent weeks. On-chain data shows that crypto whales have started taking bullish positions on its native LDO token.
Over the past two weeks, crypto whales have been increasing their bets on LDO. The chart below depicts have Large Transactions involving LDO have more than doubled since the close of May.
On May 27, only 14 whale transactions were recorded on LidoDAO. Meanwhile, at the close of June 6, that figure had increased to 73 transactions.
The global crypto market cap grew by 53% in Q1 2023. But since then, the bull rally has cooled off relatively. Crypto whales are now turning to the passive income opportunities presented by DeFi staking protocols like LidoDAO.
LDO holders can anticipate further price gains in June 2023 if this trend continues.
Large Investors are Eyeing Optimism.
Optimism (OP), is another prominent altcoin that has been courting the attention of strategic whale investors in recent weeks.
Between May 30 and June 7, crypto whales holding balances of 100,000 to 10 million OP added another 100 million tokens to their holdings.
At the current market price of $1.50, the new investment made by the crypto whales is worth approximately $150 million. Considering the buzz surrounding Optimism’s successful Layer 2 network upgrade, OP could enter a prolonged rally if the whales keep buying in June 2023.
As regulators crack down on prominent exchanges, institutional investors appear to be shifting capital toward Bitcoin and a handful of altcoins.
Strategic investors will be keeping an eye out for these altcoins as they navigate the turbulent market conditions.