A Bitcoin whale has been amassing billions in Ether, outpacing the second-largest corporate treasury firm, indicating a shift among major investors toward cryptocurrencies with greater upside potential.
This Bitcoin whale, valued at over $11 billion, sold another $215 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to purchase $216 million in spot Ether (ETH) on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
Following this latest acquisition, the whale now possesses 886,371 Ether valued at over $4 billion, as reported by Lookonchain on Monday in an X post.
The surge in whale demand for Ether suggests a “natural rotation” within the market toward Ether and other altcoins with better upside potential. At the same time, Ether’s price benefits from increased corporate accumulation, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen, in a statement to Cointelegraph.
The $11 billion Bitcoin whale began shifting funds into Ether on August 21, selling $2.59 billion in BTC for $2.2 billion in spot Ether, alongside a $577 million Ether perpetual long position, as reported by Cointelegraph.
Last Monday, the whale closed out $450 million of its perpetual position at an average Ether price of $4,735, securing a $33 million profit before buying an additional $108 million in spot Ether.
This multibillion-dollar shift has motivated other significant investors, including nine major whale addresses that collectively acquired $456 million worth of 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 beginning to outpace corporate cryptocurrency treasury holdings.
With this latest investment, the whale’s $4 billion Ether holdings now exceed 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 around 50% of the top corporate Ether holder, Bitmine Immersion’s 1.8 million Ether tokens valued at over $8 billion, according to data from strategicethereserve.xyz.
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Further contributing to rising demand, spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have purchased over $1.8 billion worth of Ether in the past five trading days, according to data from Farside Investors.
“Institutions are clearly broadening their horizons beyond Bitcoin,” stated Iliya Kalchev, a dispatch analyst at digital asset platform Nexo.
“For crypto, the trend is unambiguous: short-term fluctuations will continue to depend on macroeconomic releases, but the foundational drivers of adoption, institutional inflows, and tokenized finance remain strong,” the analyst told Cointelegraph.
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