In May 2021, the activity of large holders of Ethereum exploded.
According to Santiment‘s findings, there has been a surge in individual ETH transactions worth more than $100,000 since the price of ETH exceeded $3,000.
🐳 #Ethereum top stakeholders have been historically active over the past week, with one 4-hour window on May 5 seeing over 6,300 $100k+ $ETH transactions. This explosion in activity beginning on May 3rd had much to do with the inevitable rise to $4,200. https://t.co/TARyzUwFc3 pic.twitter.com/d349y7Bvko
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) May 11, 2021
The price of Ethereum continues to set new records, and today exceeded $4,300 for the first time in its history.
In mid-April, the price of Ethereum exceeded $2,400 for the first time ever, while on 22 April it also exceeded $2,600.
At the beginning of May, it was close to $3,000, and then soared past it on 3 May, when the explosion in whale activity also began. Suffice it to say that since then, in less than ten days, the price has risen by over 40%.
Santiment’s chart, which compares the price curve with the overall volumes of individual on-chain transactions worth more than $100,000, clearly shows how this volume literally soared shortly after the $3,000 mark was breached.
Ethereum holders follow the price
Over the past 12 months, there had been a single peak at nearly 6,000 transactions of $100,000 or more on 23 February 2021 when the price fell sharply and rapidly.
But since 3 May there have already been two peaks with over 6,000 large transactions, and an average volume of these transactions twice as large as in previous weeks.
In particular, on 5 May, over 6,300 ETH transactions worth over $100,000 were recorded on the Ethereum blockchain in just four hours.
It is worth noting that something similar had already occurred at the beginning of January, when the price of ETH jumped from $750 to $1,300 in a short period of time, but with a total volume of large transactions that was significantly lower than at present. It should be noted, however, that since then the price of ETH has tripled, so if instead of using the dollar equivalent to calculate these volumes one simply used the amount of ETH transacted, the volume in ETH at the beginning of January would probably be higher than it is today.
This data reveals that ETH whales tend to be more active when the price rises, suggesting that when this happens they sell some of their ETH to cash in other currencies, probably including mostly USDT. Indeed, the peaks in USDT trading volume in 2021 occurred right at the beginning of January, between 23 and 24 February, between 17 and 24 April, and especially from 5 May.
