According to reports by IntoTheBlock, a significant portion of the Ether supply, accounting for 39%, is owned by a limited number of addresses. This stands in contrast to Bitcoin, where the share of large holders, also known as whales, does not exceed 11% of the total supply.
This observation by experts suggests that the future prospects of Ethereum’s price movement for investors could be impacted due to this almost three-fold increase compared to Bitcoin.
Recently, analysts at Santiment reported that Ethereum whales started accumulating the cryptocurrency actively in 2020. This led to an upward rally in ETH’s price, which resulted in the asset’s value increasing up to 50%.
However, the concentration of a significant amount of digital assets in the hands of a few large holders remains a controversial topic within the crypto community.
While some members of the community do not view this as a cause for concern and argue that it’s a natural result of market development, others suggest that the concentration of wealth in the hands of a limited number of large holders could have significant implications for the future of the entire ecosystem.
They believe that this goes against the decentralized spirit of cryptocurrencies and could lead to market manipulation.
BitInfoCharts observer reports that in early February, during the surge in the value of the main crypto assets, market whales, which are large investors in Bitcoin and Ether, withdrew over $700 million worth of crypto assets from exchanges to their cold wallets.