Over the past 30 days, whales have accumulated 1.5 million ether (ETH), Ethereum's native currency, equivalent to $3.78 billion at today's price, June 15.
Data shows that whales (investors holding more than 1,000 ETH) increased their holdings by 3.72% and now control 26.98% of the total Ether supply.
Analysts at Santiment, an on-chain data analytics firm, highlight that the whales' behavior suggests that institutional investors have adopted a long-term accumulation strategy for Ethereum.
Large investors have been accumulating ETH over the past 30 days (green line). Source: Santiment.
Meanwhile, analysts at the firm indicated that small investors have been offloading their ETH to take profits. Amid these movements, ETH's price at the time of this writing is $2,520. Tere is an "institutional craze" for ETH in the market. In this context, companies such as BTCS Inc. and SharpLink have been issuing debt to finance purchases of the asset without relying on their operating income.
It is a similar strategy to the one used by Strategy, the firm led by Michael Saylor, although in this case the acquisitions are not of bitcoin (BTC). It's also worth noting that this institutional enthusiasm is also reflected in ETH spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These financial instruments posted a record 19 consecutive days of net inflows.
The green streak ended on Friday, June 13, when they recorded $2.18 million inflows. Since their market launch, ETH ETFs have accumulated $3.85 billion inflows.
Inflows and outflows of ether ETFs. Source: SosoValue.
The strong performance of these financial instruments has a direct impact on ETH. Due to their operation, asset management companies must hold the underlying asset in their treasuries to back their shares. By simple supply and demand, if there's demand for these ETFs, companies must enter the market to buy more ETH. This will generate upward pressure on their price.
