An anonymous Ethereum whale has made a comeback, and this one was big. Top U.S. exchange Kraken got hit by pulling in 5,099 ETH equal to around $15.17 million. The whale staked the full amount into Lido right away and converted it to stETH in minutes.
According to the Arkham records, the whale's address, "0x761F2F," has not been active for over three months. Its last major activity was a series of multi-million-dollar USDC transfers to and from Symbiosis and Hyperliquid, along with other stablecoin operations via MetaRouter and CoW Protocol.
But this latest move is on a different scale and market situation.
After withdrawing ETH at around $2,943 per coin, the whale did not wait long and instantly sent all 5,099 ETH to Lido getting 5.1K stETH in return, which is now sitting in the same wallet.
Right now, the balance is just over $15 million, and almost all of that is in staked ETH, revealing a major long-term plan.
Ethereum price context matters
It is interesting that this on-chain pivot happened while ETH was trading near its local support zone around $2,939. That zone had been acting as a psychological barrier throughout January. This suggests the whale either sees the current weakness as a buying opportunity or expects strong upside in the staking economy.
No DEX swaps, no fragmentation — just a full conversion from CEX liquidity to ETH staking exposure. With whales like this moving into stTETH, Lido might see a fresh inflow cycle in the coming weeks if others follow the signal.
Gamza Khanzadaev
Tomiwabold Olajide
Denys Serhiichuk
Godfrey Benjamin