On-chain data from Santiment shows that Ethereum shark and whale addresses have seen growth of 5.7% over the past year.
Ethereum shark and whale numbers have increased over the past year
According to data from the on-chain analysis firm Holythere are now about 380 more sharks and whales on the market compared to 12 months ago.
The relevant indicator here is the “ETH Supply Distribution”, which tells us about the total amount of Ethereum currently held by each wallet pool in the sector. Addresses are divided into these “wallet pools” based on how many coins they have in their balances at the moment.
The 10-100 coin cohort, for example, includes all wallets that hold 10-100 ETH at the moment. The supply distribution metric for this specific group would measure the sum of the individual balances of all addresses in the network that meet this condition.
Related Reading: Bitcoin Hoarding: HODLers Are Buying 15,000 BTC Per Month
In the context of the current discussion, investors of interest are those who hold at least 1,000 ETH, meaning the relevant range here would be 1,000 to infinite coins.
Here is a chart showing the trend in Ethereum supply distribution for such investors over the past two years:
The value of the metric seems to have been going up in recent days | Source: Santiment on Twitter
This portfolio range of at least 1,000 ETH (worth about $1.9 million at current exchange rates) includes two very important cohorts for Ethereum: sharks and whales.
These investors can have great influence on the market, since they have such large amounts in their wallets (whales are naturally more powerful than sharks, since they are the larger of the two. For this reason, their behavior can provide clues as to where the market may be headed in the long term.
As shown in the chart above, the supply distribution for the 1000+ ETH range had a value of 6712 a year ago. Since then, the indicator has enjoyed a general uptrend and its value has risen to 7,092 today.
This implies that during the last year 380 new addresses belonging to sharks and whales have appeared on the network, which represents an increase of around 5.7%.
Ethereum experienced a decline for most of last year as the bear market held on tightly to the cryptocurrency. Overall, the asset is still down 35% in this period, meaning these giant holders have been buying while the asset’s value has been relatively low.
On the chart, it is visible that the most significant buying wave in this period occurred just after the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. This suggests that sharks and whales saw the lows that followed this crash as a profitable buying opportunity.
And indeed, its accumulation there seems to have paid off so far, as those lows now look to be the bottom of this bear market. These holders have also continued to buy a net amount on the current rally thus far, meaning they are supportive of the price rise. Naturally, this can be a positive sign for longer-term bullish momentum.
ETH price
As of this writing, Ethereum is trading around $1,900, down 1% over the past week.
Looks like the asset's value has seen some volatility recently | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView
Featured image of Bastian Riccardi on Unsplash.com, Charts from TradingView.com, Santiment.net
