Mysterious Whales Moving Millions In ETH As Ether Hits Highest Price Point Since The Merge

The Ethereum market has been rallying on the back of massive whale activity. According to data pointed out by crypto market intelligence platform Santiment, the price of Ether (ETH) surged by 8.1% following a whale wallet moving 15,000 ETH  (worth around $22.2 million).

In a tweet, Santiment revealed that the whale was last active on Oct. 4, 2016 — over six years ago. The tweet added that the transaction, which saw the whale send the ETH coins to an empty wallet, could have fueled the rise of the price of ETH to over $1,500 for the first time since the merge upgrade was done six weeks ago.

The entity is not the only whale that has recently become active in the ETH market. Whale Alerts had previously pointed out the activation of a whale wallet containing 200 ETH, which was last active in the Ethereum pre-mine era of 2015.

Santiment also noted recently that ETH whales shuffling 320,000 tokens between themselves has coincided with the ETH market’s largest transaction volume spike. 

Whale activity driving bullish ETH trading

The price of ETH has been reacting positively to the massive whale activity in the market. ETH did not stop at an 8.1% increase but has sustained the gains with further increases. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the price of ETH currently stands at around $1,557, up 14.4% in the last 24 hours.

The price rally has, however, come with growing pains for short traders in the futures market. Per data from Coinglass, the ETH futures market has seen over $475 million of liquidations in the last 24 hours. The figure is even more staggering for the entire crypto market, which saw total liquidations of $1.2 billion, with 87.21% of the losses being short liquidations.

Meanwhile, analysts have also attributed the ETH price surge to other factors besides whale activity. OANDA’s senior market analyst Edward Moya told Barons that Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are gaining momentum on the back of Wall Street’s few recent vigorous sessions.

He added that the market showed further weakness in galvanizing investors’ sentiment that the Fed would pivot its monetary policy. 

“Both Bitcoin and Ethereum are gaining momentum as Wall Street musters up a few strong sessions.  The economy is showing further signs of weakening, which is helping investors grow confident that the Fed will be in a better position to downshift their tightening pace after next week’s FOMC meeting,” said Moya.