Cryptocurrency analyst and trader Ali Martinez (known on the X social media platform as @ali_charts) has published a post about the second largest digital currency Ethereum, created by Vitalik Buterin as a native coin of the same-name blockchain platform.
He believes that ETH is currently seeing an "intriguing shift" taking place.
Meanwhile, Ethereum reclaimed the $2,000 high over the weekend.
"Subtle yet intriguing ETH shift happening"
Ali pointed out a "subtle, yet intriguing" development taking place for Ethereum; large ETH holders, also known within the crypto community as whales, have again started accumulating Ethereum slowly but surely. This slow purchase activity began for the first time in the past two months, per Ali's X post.
According to the Glassnode chart he shared, these are whales that hold 10,000 ETH or more in their wallets.
Over the last 24 hours, Whale Alert crypto tracker, as if supporting this point, spotted two massive ETH transactions made from major exchange Bitfinex to unknown blockchain addresses — 21,229 ETH (worth $42,454,140) and 19,764 ETH (evaluated at $39,157,392). The latter ETH sum went to a new wallet, the above-mentioned source emphasized.
Both transactions look like purchases of ETH that had been withdrawn to cold wallets for long-term storage.
Whales taking profit as ETH price surges
In the meantime, the Ethereum price managed to regain the $2,000 high over the weekend, now trading at the $2,023 level on the Bitstamp exchange. Thus, from Friday, Nov. 17, to today, Ethereum has demonstrated 6.10% growth.
As the ETH price has been rising, several whales decided to withdraw their profits over the weekend. According to Whale Alert data, there were three massive transactions, sending ETH to top exchanges Bitfinex and Coinbase.
The aforementioned blockchain sleuth spotted 18,373 ETH; 18,095 ETH and 15,000 ETH sent to be sold. The first two transactions are evaluated at slightly more than $35 million. The last of the three was worth $29,711,897.