Large investors, commonly referred to as “whales,” have been accumulating Ethereum ($ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. They have added nearly $500 million worth of ETH to their holdings in recent weeks. On-chain analysis service Lookonchain has shared data indicating that these whales have been withdrawing ETH from the leading exchange Binance.
One of the whales, suspected to be TRON founder Justin Sun, withdrew 4,666 ETH from Binance, worth around $14.9 million. This withdrawal followed a series of ETH withdrawals since April 8, totaling 132,054 ETH, which accumulated over $430 million. Another whale with the wallet initials “0x9EB0” withdrew 7,182 ETH from Binance, while a third whale identified as “0x4446” withdrew 11,892 ETH, worth about $37.7 million, to invest in the cryptocurrency by depositing it on the decentralized lending platform Compound and borrowing USDT.
Lookonchain also mentioned an additional whale, “0x1958,” which withdrew 5,1818 ETH worth $16.28 million from Binance and staked the funds with the non-custodial liquid restaking protocol Bedrock and DeFi protocol Pendle.
However, not all whales have had successful ventures. One whale lost over $4.5 million by attempting to leverage their long position on Ethereum twice. They had to repay their debt on a decentralized protocol as the price dropped. Their loss occurred after taking out a USDT loan on Compound and later using the funds to purchase more ETH. The whale then attempted a second leverage by borrowing USDT and buying more ETH, ultimately losing an additional $4 million.
Compound’s lending system requires over-collateralization, which means users must provide collateral worth more than the loan amount. However, the volatility of cryptocurrency prices poses risks, as loans can easily become under-collateralized, leading to liquidation.
In summary, major cryptocurrency investors have been accumulating ETH recently, but not all of their ventures have been successful.