Top Whales Accumulate $40,000,000,000 in Ethereum, Shattering Seven-Year Record: Santiment

The largest Ethereum (ETH) whales have been quietly gobbling up ETH in 2023, according to the crypto analytics firm Santiment.

Santiment notes that at one point this past weekend, the top 10 largest non-exchange ETH addresses surpassed collective holdings of more than 25 million Ethereum for the first time since 2016.

“Very quietly, Ethereum broke a 7-year record over the weekend. Not since 2016 have the top 10 non-exchange addresses alone collectively held over 25 million ETH. Expect to see some critics come out of the woodwork to complain about ETH centralization on this one.”

The firm also says that the number of large whale addresses has been declining, with only 124 addresses holding 100,000 or more ETH currently, compared to a high of 176 in July 2019.

Ethereum is worth $1,654 at time of writing. The second-ranked crypto asset by market cap is up nearly 1% in the past 24 hours and nearly 2.5% in the past seven days.

ETH is also up roughly 38% since the start of 2023, though it remains more than 66% down from its all-time high of $4,878, which it hit in November 2021.

Despite crypto’s positive price movement in 2023 thus far, Santiment notes that more Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum traders sold at a loss last week than at a profit, the first time that happened since December.

The analytics firm says this could signal the end of the bear market.

“Historically, once the crowd is exiting their positions more frequently at a loss, bottoms are more likely to form.”

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