Ethereum Sees Increased Whale Activity Following Optimistic Remarks From Tom Lee

As the price of Ethereum picks up again, bullish sentiment among investors has improved. Large Ethereum investors are quietly increasing their exposure to the altcoin following the recent move above the $2,000 price level. Another development acting as a catalyst to this renewed confidence is the latest remarks from Tom Lee about the asset’s outlook.

Tom Lee Backs Ethereum, Large Players Stack ETH

While Ethereum is slowly recovering its upside momentum, a fresh wave of accumulation is emerging underneath the surface of the recent upward trend. This new accumulation is unfolding among large investors or whales, signaling renewed confidence in the asset’s outlook.

Santiment, a popular market intelligence and data analytics platform, reveals that wallet addresses holding between 100 and 100,000 ETH have been rising over the past 2 days. Within this short period, these investors have scooped up an additional 756,950 ETH.

With the accumulation turning up during a price bounce, this suggests that ETH whales are taking advantage of the current state of the market to increase their exposure. Such action from large holders is usually interpreted as a sign of robust belief in the altcoin’s long-term trajectory.

While large investors have been buying more ETH, small holders, those considered as shrimps, have been slowly offloading their stash. Since Mid-December, wallet addresses holding under 0.01 ETH have collectively dumped over 0.9% of their supply. This divergence highlights a shift in market confidence, with deeper-pocketed players leaning bullish while small investors grow more cautious.

Given the influence of large investors’ actions on the market, the shifting of ownership into major players could lead to the tightening of supply, which might impact Ethereum’s price performance in the short term. Should this continue, it is more likely to trigger a stronger upward move for the altcoin.

Bitmine Is Still Buying More ETH In The Face Of Volatility

According to Santiment’s data, the increase in whale accumulation follows recent comments made by Tom Lee, whose upbeat attitude toward the altcoin has contributed to the expanding bullish narrative. Tom Lee, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bitmine Immersion, stated that the company’s base case for Ethereum is that the auction is in the final stages of the “mini crypto winter.” The statement has simply fueled optimism as institutional voices and on-chain behavior start to converge.

Adding to the bullish statement is the firm’s most recent ETH purchase, amassing 65,341 ETH over the past week. This figure marks a significant uptick in buying activity when compared to an average of 45,000 ETH to 50,000 ETH in prior weekly purchases. According to Lee, “Bitmine has maintained the increased pace of ETH buys in each of the past three weeks.”

As of March 23, Bitmine owns about 4.661 million ETH, representing over 3.86% of the entire supply in circulation. Furthermore, this reinforces the company’s position as the largest Ethereum treasury firm in the world, and the second global treasury behind Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which owns 761,068 BTC valued at a whopping $52 billion.

Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com