A Bitcoin whale has been amassing billions in Ether, outpacing the second-largest corporate treasury, reflecting a shift among major investors towards cryptocurrencies with greater upside potential.
This Bitcoin whale, valued at over $11 billion, recently sold $215 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to acquire $216 million in spot Ether (ETH) via the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
After this latest purchase, the whale holds 886,371 Ether worth over $4 billion, as reported by Lookonchain on Monday in an X post.
The increasing demand from whales for Ether is indicating a “natural rotation” in the market towards Ether and other altcoins with higher potential, while Ether’s price also benefits from growing corporate accumulation, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen, who spoke to Cointelegraph.
The $11 billion Bitcoin whale began reallocating funds into Ether on August 21, having sold $2.59 billion in BTC to obtain $2.2 billion in spot Ether and a $577 million Ether perpetual long position, as reported by Cointelegraph.
Last Monday, the whale liquidated $450 million of his perpetual long position at an average Ether price of $4,735, securing a profit of $33 million before acquiring another $108 million in spot Ether.
This multibillion-dollar shift has inspired other large investors, including nine significant whale addresses that collectively accumulated $456 million in ETH on Wednesday, Cointelegraph noted.
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$11 billion Bitcoin whale surpasses SharpLink’s $3.5 billion Ether holdings
Some cryptocurrency whales are beginning to overshadow the holdings of corporate treasury firms in the crypto space.
With this latest transaction, the mysterious whale’s $4 billion in Ether surpasses the portfolio of SharpLink Gaming, the world’s second-largest corporate Ether holder, which currently possesses over 797,000 ETH valued at $3.5 billion.
However, the whale’s holdings are still about 50% compared to the largest corporate Ether holder, Bitmine Immersion’s 1.8 million Ether tokens worth over $8 billion, based on data from strategicethereserve.xyz.
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Further contributing to the rising demand, spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have accumulated over $1.8 billion in Ether over the last five trading days, according to data from Farside Investors.
“Institutions are clearly expanding their focus beyond Bitcoin,” stated Iliya Kalchev, a dispatch analyst at the digital asset platform Nexo.
“In cryptocurrency, the trend is evident: short-term movements will continue to be influenced by macroeconomic releases, but the fundamental drivers of adoption, institutional investments, and tokenized finance persist,” the analyst told Cointelegraph.
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