Ethereum’s latest rally above $4,300 is being fueled by whale activity, with on-chain data showing multi-million-dollar purchases and exchange withdrawals over the past week.
Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer at Maelstrom Fund and co-founder of BitMEX, moved about $8.4 million in crypto in the past day, according to data on Arkham Intelligence. The trades included $6.35 million in ETH, $1.07 million in Lido DAO, $516,000 in EtherFi, and $1.02 million in Pendle.
Hayes' buys came as Ethereum briefly topped $4,300 early Monday and followed his earlier forecast that ETH could “tear the market a new asshole” and reach $10,000 within the year.
A wallet identified late Sunday by Lookonchain as belonging to a “mysterious institution” accumulated 221,166 ETH worth $946.6 million over the past week, including a single-day purchase of 49,533 ETH valued at $212 million. The buys were routed through OTC platforms FalconX, Galaxy Digital, and BitGo.
Over the past two weeks, a wallet associated with SharpLink Gaming received more than $253 million in large transfers, according to data from Arkham Intelligence. The inflows included $44.7 million, $23.3 million, and others in the $13–23 million range.
Lining up
Analysts and observers told Decrypt these latest moves reflect a mix of market structure shifts and opportunistic positioning.
“When large holders step up ETH accumulation, it’s usually because they see both structural and short-term drivers lining up,” Andrei Grachev, managing partner at DWF Labs, told Decrypt.
In this case, it’s the combination of “steady staking yields, strong network usage, and macro tailwinds like expected rate cuts,” he added.
Grachev noted that some of the demand is likely linked to ETF flows and institutional OTC activity, “which tend to be stickier forms of capital.”
Yet that concentration could become “a double-edged sword,” he said. “While it tightens supply now, if momentum fades, those same large positions can amplify volatility.”
Still, Grachev believes a sustained recovery for the broader decentralized finance sector would require “not just price appreciation but consistent liquidity depth and usage metrics holding up, even if market sentiment cools.”
The whale-driven rally may also be tied to Ethereum's deepening role among institutional portfolios, Xavier Meegan, chief investment officer at crypto-native fund Frachtis, told Decrypt.
Ethereum is the “second most institutionally recognised digital asset, valued for its security and ability to move large amounts of capital,” Meegan said, adding that regulatory clarity has given institutions “greater confidence to engage.”
Meegan warned, however, that the greater risk is that these reforms are a work in progress.
“If market-structure legislation stalls, value accrual to DeFi tokens could face setbacks,” he said.
Others pointed to near-term catalysts that could sway market momentum.
Vincent Liu, CIO of Kronos Research, told Decrypt that investors should “remain cautious of volatility risks,” noting that the U.S. Consumer Price Index report, a key inflation gauge that can sway Federal Reserve policy, is due on Tuesday and “could trigger market swings due to macro news.”
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