- Ten whales bought 210,000 Ethereum worth $863 million through OTC in just six hours.
- Grayscale sold $53.8 million in ETH on Coinbase Prime with three significant transfers.
- Tom Lee predicted Ethereum could reach $10,000 to $12,000, driven by institutions.
Ethereum slipped under the $4,000 threshold as exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows weakened and macroeconomic uncertainty grew. Analysts cite waning institutional demand and risk-off sentiment as major drivers of the decline. ETH has dropped to $4,027.01 as of press time, reflecting a 3.58% decline. Its Market capitalization is at $486.07 billion, while trading volume has surged 28.25% to $43.52 billion.
Over the past week, the price has declined by 13.03%, from above $4500 to around $4000 before stabilizing. The rise in activity, along with dropping prices, suggested more selling pressure than accumulation. Despite attempts at recovery in the very short term, the bear dominated the session.
Whales Quietly Accumulate Over 210,000 ETH
On-chain data revealed huge whale accumulation under bearish sentiment. In just six hours, 10 whale addresses purchased 210,000+ ETH valued at $863 million through OTC routes. Tracing and identifying these transactions through major liquidity providers, including Kraken, Galaxy Digital OTC, BitGo, and FalconX. This, coupled with the fact that several large transfers occurred within minutes of each other, indicates coordinated buying. According to the analyst, whales are buying Ethereum for cheap while others are panic-selling.
An analyst also pointed out divergent activity on Binance. Withdrawals on certain days exceeded 8 million ETH, while on others, deposits of as much as 4 million ETH were registered. Continuous deposits and withdrawals signified conflicting market strategies. Still, much of the Ethereum on Binance remained unused, with utilization rates close to zero. Analysts said this reflected whales preparing for a decisive move that had yet to materialize.
“The market appears to have been preparing for a major move but has yet to trigger it,” the analyst observed. “Continued low utilization despite rising deposits could indicate accumulation rather than selling pressure.”
Related: Ethereum Seen as Neutral Base Layer for Wall Street Growth
Grayscale Sells $53.8 Million in ETH: Amid Tom Lee’s Prediction
While whales accumulated off-exchange, Grayscale moved in the opposite direction. Grayscale sold $53,810,000 in ETH through Coinbase Prime. Three major transfers occurred within 16 minutes. The first involved 4,861 ETH worth $20.32 million, followed by 3,894 ETH worth $16.28 million and 4,116 ETH worth $17.21 million.
Amid the volatility, Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee offered a bullish long-term outlook. Speaking at Korea Blockchain Week 2025, Lee described Ethereum as a “truly neutral chain” poised for Wall Street adoption. Lee projected ETH could climb to $10,000–$12,000 by the end of 2025. He tied this prediction to high demand, the rise of tokenized real-world assets, and pro-crypto policy from the Trump administration.
Data further supports increased institutional pressure. Reports claim that 86% of institutional investors intend to allocate resources to digital assets this year. Spot ETH ETFs have performed well and have attracted historic inflows, while tokenized assets stay on top in capital deployment. Another vote of confidence came from BitMine, which announced it holds 2% of the total supply of Ethereum. Such large entities building up balances further expanded Lee’s thesis that ETH would end up being a corner of institutional adoption.
