On 20th February, Ethereum (ETH) had hit its all-time highest value of $2050. Since then, addresses possessing over 10,000 ETH have barely changed at all.
Santiment reports that there has been a decline of only 0.9% in the wallets that possess more than 10K ETH. The total worth is approximately $17.7M at the current market price. It is negligible compared to the 7.2% decline recorded for the addresses that possess between 100 and 10K ETH.
Causes Of The Steadiness Of Ethereum
Experts explain that these whale wallets are possibly under the ownership of institutional investors. Large bodies like exchanges, institutional funds, or large companies would necessarily need the asset locked up or at hand for investments.
Anthony Sassano, the co-founder of ETHhub pointed out in his 18th March newsletter that such large institutions are increasingly stockpiling ETH. He further expects that such purchases will soon be public in the next few months. He points out three different possible reasons for the stockpiling: as gas, as a stake for ETH2, and as a reserve asset or SOV.
Meanwhile, the middle-tier wallets are seemingly depositing additional ETH in DeFi. This comes at a time when the value of Etherium locked in the protocol is near the all-time high of 10M ETH. The all-time high was reached on 11th March. Currently, it stands at 9.6M ETH.
This would account for 8.3% of the total supply with an estimated price of $17B at the current rate. Furthermore, there is an additional 3.53M ETH invested in Beacon Chain. This is estimated to have a value of $6.3B
As a result of these factors, the prices have been largely maintained at $1800 since 9th March. Recently, there has been a 1% decrease in Ethereum prices in one day and currently stands at around $1790.
