Ethereum Whales Stockpile Over $6 Billion in $ETH While Whales Keep Dumping, Data Shows

Data from cryptocurrency analytics platform Santiment has revealed that so-called ‘Shark’ addresses on the Ethereum blockchain have over the past year stockpiled over $6.2 billion worth of the second-largest digital currency by market capitalization.

These addresses are defined as those holding between 10 and 10,000 ETH, or between $17,500 or $17.5 million worth of the cryptocurrency, and their supply has grown by 554,000 ETH in the past week, according to the platform’s data.

Meanwhile, however, while ETH sharks have been accumulating heavily, whales on the network have “collectively dumped 9.43 million in the same timeframe.” These whales are defined as addresses hoolding between 10,000 and 10 million ETH, meaning from $17.5 million to $17.5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency.

Santiment’s data also indicates that crypto forums are paying close attention to the various banking crises occurring globally. The company notes that “laws and policies going forward may have a dramatic impact on the trajectory of cryptocurrency”.

Notably, Ethereum is set to undergo its highly-anticipated Shanghai-Capella upgrade, often referred to as Shapella, upgrade on April 12. The upgrade includes one key feature, with Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895.

EIP 4895 will allow for withdrawals of staked Ether on the network, a functionality that wasn’t implemented when the network merged with the Beacon Chain and transitioned to a Proof-of-Stake consensus.

The upgrade will also feature three other improvements aimed at optimizing gas costs for certain activities. The upgrade is set to take place on April 12 at epoch number 620,9536.

Shapella is coming after multiple phases of public testing on three testnets, including Sepolia, Zhejiang, and Goerli. The upgrade was earlier this week deployed on the Goerli testnet as a final rehearsal ahead of the mainnet launch.

As CryptoGlobe reported, the supply of Ethereum has dropped by over 64,457 ETH since the network’s merge upgrade over 180 days, to the point there are now 120,456 ETH circulating on the market. Ethereum’s supply has been dropping by 0.1% per year since the Merge, while without it, it would be rising at a rate of 3.42% per year.

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