Ether whales have added 14% more coins since April price lows

Ether whales have been ramping up their $ETH buying since the token dipped to yearly lows in April, according to crypto sentiment platform Santiment.

“In exactly 5 months, they have added 14.0% more coins,” Santiment said in an X post on Wednesday, referring to whale holders with 1,000 to 100,000 $ETH, valued between $4.41 million and $440.81 million.

Ether ($ETH) is trading at $4,376, and is now up 197.30% from its yearly low of $1,472 on April 9, according to CoinMarketCap.

Ether is up 19.57% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Crypto market participants typically watch whale activity to assess sentiment since sell-offs can signal bearishness, while accumulation can suggest bullishness and expectations of higher prices.

Some $ETH whales got caught out by the rally

However, not all whales timed the market well. Some sold near the bottom and ended up chasing the rally back.

On May 22, a crypto wallet spent $3.8 million to purchase 1,425 Ether, after selling 2,522 $ETH for $3.9 million in April, when the asset was trading at about $1,570.

Ether whales have accumulated 5.54 million Ether tokens since April 3. Source: Santiment

Many attribute Ether’s surge primarily to increasing ETF inflows and growing $ETH treasury holdings, with the two largest treasury firms — Sharplink Gaming and BitMine Immersion Technologies — making their first purchases in June, when Ether traded between $2,228 and $2,813 over the month.

BitMine, the largest $ETH treasury company, now holds $8.22 billion worth of $ETH, while Sharplink Gaming holds $3.69 billion, according to StrategicETHReserve.

$ETH treasuries now hold nearly 3% of total supply

Ether treasury companies currently hold $15.83 billion worth of $ETH, which equates to roughly 2.97% of the entire supply.

Meanwhile, August was strong for Ethereum ETF funds, which saw $3.87 billion in inflows compared with Bitcoin ETFs’ $751 million outflows.

Ether could reach $15K by the end of the year, says analyst

In the same month, Ether reclaimed its 2021 all-time highs of $4,878, reaching as high as $4,934 on Aug. 24.

Some are anticipating Ether’s price to go much higher. Head of digital asset research for Fundstrat, Sean Farrell, said $ETH could go as high as $12,000 to $15,000 by year-end.

Related: $ETH breakout or fakeout? Traders debate whether Ether holds $4.5K

However, others suggest that most of the market’s focus will eventually return to Bitcoin.

The $ETH/$BTC ratio, which measures Ether’s relative strength against Bitcoin ($BTC), is down 2.27% across the past seven days, according to TradingView.

Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham said in an X post on Wednesday that “Institutions are coming back to $BTC.”

“ETFS just sold $135M $ETH and bought $332M $BTC,” Arkham said.

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