The largest market participants have continued to increase their exposure to Ethereum (ETH) and have invested millions of dollars into the second largest cryptocurrency.
The price of ETH has recently weakened by nearly 3% just this week. This discrepancy indicates that while price development is still under pressure, institutional and larger investors' long-term belief in the asset appears to remain intact.
The weakness in price does not deter large buyers.
BeInCrypto Markets data showed that Ethereum has continued its struggle amid a broader market downturn. At the time of writing, the price of ETH was $2,929.23, representing a decrease of 1.06% over the last 24 hours.
Many investors have panicked over the drop, but others see the situation as a buying opportunity. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain highlighted that BitMine Immersion Technologies purchased 67,886 ETH, valued at around $201 million.
Prior to this, the company had already acquired 29,462 ETH a day earlier, valued at $88.1 million, from BitGolt and Kraken. These consecutive purchases support the company's broader fundraising strategy.
Last week, BitMine accumulated a total of 98,852 ETH, bringing the company's total investments in Ethereum above the $4 million mark. Since Ethereum's price was only slightly higher than BitMine's average entry price of $2,991, the company does not appear to be concerned about recent price fluctuations.
Another particularly significant buyer was Trend Research. This secondary investment unit is led by Jack Yi, founder of LD Capital, and it purchased 46,379 ETH today. The company now holds approximately 580,000 ETH.
"They started buying ETH from the bottom in early November, at a price of around $3,400. Now they have accumulated a total of 580,000 ETH (around $1.72 billion), with an estimated average price of about $3,208. This means they currently have an unrealized loss of about $141 million," EmberCN reported.
In a public statement, Yi mentioned that the company is preparing to allocate another billion dollars for Ethereum purchases. He also advised against shorting Ethereum.
Large on-chain whales have also remained active. A wallet known as the "66k ETH Borrow" whale had previously accumulated 528,272 ETH (worth around $1.57 billion) and added another 40,975 ETH, worth about $121 million.
"Since November 4th, this whale has purchased a total of 569,247 ETH (worth $1.69 billion), of which $881.5 million of the funds used for the purchase were borrowed from Aave," Lookonchain noted.
At the same time, Fasanara Capital employed a leveraged strategy. The company acquired 6,569 ETH, valued at $19.72 million, over two days, and the deposit was transferred to the Morpho protocol. Additionally, it borrowed $13 million USDC for further Ethereum purchases.
Ethereum whales are dividing as buying and selling intensifies.
However, not all major players are accumulating Ethereum, as some are reducing their positions. BeInCrypto reported that Arthur Hayes transferred 682 ETH today, valued at around $2 million, to Binance.
Lookonchain noted that the director sold 1,871 ETH, worth $5.53 million, during the past week while also buying Ethena (ENA), Pendle (PENDLE), and ETHFI tokens.
"We are moving assets from ETH to quality DeFi projects that we believe will perform better as fiat liquidity improves," Hayes wrote on X.
The selling pressure was heightened by a report from Onchain Lens, indicating that a Bitcoin OG whale deposited 100,000 ETH, worth around $292.12 million, into Binance. Large deposits to exchanges are often interpreted as selling intentions, although they do not always lead to immediate liquidations.
Previously, ETHZilla also reported selling 24,291 ETH, worth around $74.5 million, to repay a secured convertible bond. Nevertheless, BeInCrypto noted that the selling by long-term Ethereum holders has plummeted by over 95%.
