The total number of Ethereum (ETH) whale addresses just hit a 10-month high. The crypto data analytics firm Santiment says the top 100 non-exchange wallets now collectively hold more than 21,800,000 ETH.
Santiment says the amount is equivalent to $4.5 billion. However, at time of writing, ETH has surged from $201 to $219, making the cumulative holdings of the top Ethereum addresses worth nearly $5 billion. According to the analysts, this marks the largest collective balance among the top 100 whale wallets.
The firm adds that addresses holding large amounts of Ether continue hoarding the cryptocurrency and that the buying spree among these large investors is likely driving a surge in ETH prices.
Ryan Watkins, a research analyst at crypto data tracker Messari, is closely watching the balance between Ether and the numerous tokens that have been built on the Ethereum blockchain.
“ERC-20 tokens are approaching 50% of the total value stored on Ethereum. Over the past two years there has been a complete transformation in how value is stored and transferred on the Ethereum blockchain.
ETH is increasingly close to being flipped on its own blockchain. Whether or not it does will likely depend on the growth of stablecoins vs growth in the value of ETH.
Nevertheless, this transformation in value on Ethereum is not just about assets being stored. They’re also being used to move significant amounts of value. Driven by the growth of stablecoins, Ethereum is on pace to settle more than $530 billion this year.”
Scott Melker, also known as the “The Wolf Of All Streets” on Twitter, remains bullish on ETH, and predicts that Ethereum is poised to outperform Bitcoin.
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