According to the @lookonchain platform that tracks "smart money" crypto transactions, a whale has purchased a large amount of Ethereum from two major exchanges recently. He did that despite the short price rise that happened earlier this week.
54,000 ETH added by whale on rise
The aforementioned investor accumulated 47,729 Ethereum in total from Coinbase and Gemini exchange, paying nearly $80 million for it.
A screenshot shared by @lookonchain shows that there were three purchase transactions of 14,871 ETH; 16,535 ETH and 10,214 ETH. This occurred on Feb. 15 and 16, when the ETH price briefly went up to the $1,680 level.
Two more purchases were made after the price dropped to the $1,663 mark earlier today. At press time, Ethereum is trading at $1,662, per the data shared by CoinMarketCap.
We found a whale bought a total of 47,729 $ETH ($79.2M) from #Coinbase and #Gemini during this $ETH price increases.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 17, 2023
And still bought 6,108 $ETH ($10.1M) after the $ETH price dropped today.https://t.co/BbSvjsT2st pic.twitter.com/JMa7NTWPeo
Is whale adding ETH before Shanghai?
A possible reason for these purchases despite the price fluctuation is that the whale is betting on the ETH price to rise after the Shanghai upgrade is implemented.
After Shanghai takes place, which is expected to happen in February, coins staked in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract will be released. It is also expected to reduce transaction fees and enable the Ethereum network to handle a larger number of transactions than it can do now.
Many investors, however, expect the price to demonstrate a sharp drop once all of the staked ETH are released onto the market.
Tomiwabold Olajide
Godfrey Benjamin
