Key market participants continued to increase their exposure to Ethereum (ETH), investing millions of dollars in the second largest cryptocurrency.
This comes despite the recent weakness in prices that caused the asset to decline by only about 3% this week. This divergence indicates that while price movement remains under pressure, the long-term conviction among institutional investors and hunters seems to remain intact.
Weak prices fail to deter major buyers
Data from BeInCrypto Markets showed that Ethereum continued to face struggles amid a broader market decline. At the time of writing, the price of ETH was trading at 2,929.23 dollars, down 1.06% over the past 24 hours.
While this decline has raised concerns among some investors, others seem to be treating this as a buying opportunity. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain highlighted that BitMine Immersion Technologies purchased 67,886 ETH, worth approximately 201 million dollars.
This came after a previous acquisition just a day earlier when the company acquired 29,462 AA worth 88.1 million dollars from Bitgo and Kraken. The consecutive purchases align with the company's broader accumulation strategy.
Just last week, BitMine acquired a total of 98,852 Ethereum, pushing its total Ethereum holdings past the 4 million mark. With the Ethereum trading price slightly above BitMine's average entry of $2,991, it seems the company is unfazed by recent price volatility.
Another notable buyer was Trend Research. The secondary investment entity led by Jack Yi, founder of LD Capital, acquired 46,379 Ethereum today. This purchase raised the institution's total holdings to approximately 580,000 Ethereum.
"They started accumulating ETH at the bottom in early November at around 3,400 dollars. So far, they have collected a total of 580,000 Ethereum (approximately 1.72 billion dollars), at an estimated average cost of around 3,208 dollars. This means they are currently facing an unrealized loss of approximately 141 million dollars," reported EmberCN.
In a public statement, Yi revealed that the company is preparing to purchase an additional 1 billion dollars worth of ETH. He also advised against selling Ethereum on the exchanges.
Large whales have also remained active on-chain. The wallet known as "Borrowing Whale 66,000 Ethereum," which previously accumulated 528,272 Ethereum worth approximately 1.57 billion dollars, added another 40,975 Ethereum worth approximately 121 million dollars.
"Since November 4, this whale has bought a total of 569,247 Ethereum (1.69 billion dollars), of which 881.5 million dollars were funds used to purchase Ethereum borrowed from Aave."
Meanwhile, Vasanaara Capital employed a strategy based on leverage. The company acquired 6,569 Ethereum worth 19.72 million dollars over two days before depositing it in the Morpho protocol. They borrowed 13 million dollars USDC to buy more Ethereum.
Ethereum whales are dividing with rising buying and selling
However, not all major players are accumulating, as some choose to reduce their positions. BeInCrypto reported that Arthur Hayes sent 682 Ethereum worth approximately 2 million dollars to Binance today.
Lookonchain reported that the executive sold 1,871 Ethereum worth 5.53 million dollars over the past week, while buying Ethereum (ENA), Pendle (PENDLE), and ETHFI.
"We are shifting from ETH to high-quality DeFi names, which we believe can outperform as fiat liquidity improves," wrote Hayes on X.
To increase selling pressure, Onchain Lens reported that the original Bitcoin whale deposited 100,000 Ethereum, worth approximately 292.12 million dollars, into Binance. Such large deposits on exchanges are often interpreted as a potential willingness to sell, although they do not always lead to immediate liquidation.
Previously, ETHZilla also revealed that it liquidated 24,291 Ethereum for about 74.5 million dollars to pay off senior secured convertible debt. Despite these opposing flows, BeInCrypto noted that selling activity among long-term Ethereum holders has collapsed by more than 95%.
