Ethereum stored on the wallets of the world’s 10 largest whales are at their highest since May 2017.
This is revealed by Santiment, which publishes a chart that clearly shows a new accumulation phase that began in late May.
#Ethereum‘s top 10 largest addresses now own the highest percentage of $ETH‘s overall supply (20.58%) since May, 2017. After dropping as low as 18.46% after the #AllTimeHigh, they’ve now accumulated 2.12% more of $ETH‘s total supply in the last 41 days. https://t.co/SKuGB0ZG5g pic.twitter.com/NcTGJFEF3d
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) July 13, 2021
However, it is worth mentioning that these addresses largely belong to exchanges or DeFi protocols, but the dynamics described by Santiment remain interesting.
In particular, it is highlighted by the fact that as of today, the top 10 addresses with the most ETH in the world collectively own 20.58% of all existing ETH, which is the highest percentage since May 2017.
Moreover, this percentage had dropped to 18.46% during the ATH at the beginning of May, which means that in the last 41 days these addresses have accumulated 2.12% of all existing ETH.
This growth actually seems to have started at least a year ago, given that by July 2020 this percentage was around 15%.
The growth of Ethereum whales
During DeFi’s brief boom in August 2020 it suddenly rose to 18%, but then fell back to around 16% in December, i.e. before the 2021 boom was triggered.
Between mid-December and the end of March, there was a first substantial rise, which brought the percentage of ETH held by the ten largest whales to just below its current level of 20%. At this stage, the price of ETH was also on the rise, but as soon as the $2,200 mark was exceeded this percentage started to fall.
In fact, in less than two months it had fallen to just over 18% as the price of ETH rose to over $4,000.
Even during the collapse at the end of May, when the price quickly returned to $2,200, this percentage was still falling.
But starting at the very end of May, while the price was actually continuing to fall, the total volume of ETH stored on the ten main addresses has risen powerfully again, reaching new highs of 2021 in recent days.
While most of these ten addresses are either exchanges, or DeFi protocols, it is curious that over the past 40 days while the price of Ethereum has actually been dropping below $2,000, or sideways, ETH has been accumulating.
It must be said, however, that this is not necessarily a bullish signal, and Santiment itself does not state this.
The post Ethereum: whales are accumulating appeared first on The Cryptonomist.
