A Bitcoin whale has been amassing billions of dollars in Ether, now exceeding the second-largest corporate treasury firm, indicating a shift among large investors towards cryptocurrencies with greater upside potential.
This Bitcoin whale, valued at over $11 billion, sold another $215 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to acquire $216 million in spot Ether (ETH) on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
After this latest purchase, the whale holds 886,371 Ether, valued at over $4 billion, as reported by Lookonchain on Monday in a post on X post.
The increasing demand from whales for Ether signals a “natural rotation” in the market into Ether and other altcoins with greater upside potential, while Ether’s price is also receiving support from a rise in corporate accumulation, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen, in an interview with Cointelegraph.
The $11 billion Bitcoin whale began shifting his investments into Ether on August 21, when he sold $2.59 billion in BTC for a $2.2 billion spot Ether purchase and a $577 million Ether perpetual long position, as reported by Cointelegraph.
Last Monday, the whale closed out $450 million of his perpetual long position at an average Ether price of $4,735, securing $33 million in profits, before purchasing an additional $108 million worth of spot Ether.
This multi-billion dollar shift has inspired other large investors, including nine “massive” whale addresses that collectively acquired $456 million in ETH on Wednesday, according to Cointelegraph.
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$11 billion Bitcoin whale surpasses SharpLink’s $3.5 billion Ether holdings
Some crypto whales are starting to surpass the holdings of corporate treasury firms.
With this latest investment, the enigmatic whale’s $4 billion Ether holdings now exceed the portfolio of SharpLink Gaming, the second-largest corporate Ether holder globally, which currently has over 797,000 ETH worth $3.5 billion.
Nonetheless, the whale’s holdings are still about 50% of the leading corporate Ether holder, Bitmine Immersion, which holds 1.8 million Ether tokens valued at over $8 billion, according to 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 during the last five trading days, data from Farside Investors reveals.
“Institutions are clearly expanding their focus beyond Bitcoin,” said Iliya Kalchev, a dispatch analyst at the digital asset platform Nexo.
“For crypto, the trend is evident: short-term fluctuations will continue to depend on macroeconomic developments, but the foundational drivers of adoption, institutional investment, and tokenized finance remain strong,” the analyst shared with Cointelegraph.
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