When the giants awaken: Why Ethereum whales are now on a buying spree

After weeks of heavy selling, large Ethereum addresses, i.e., those wallets with holdings between 100 and 10,000 ETH, appear to have taken advantage of the price drop to increase their holdings. Between October 5 and 16, these addresses sold approximately 1.36 million ETH, but just a few days later, buybacks began again. According to on-chain analysis, approximately 218,000 ETH were transferred back to their wallets. Two of these addresses, known by the codes 0x395 and 0x86E, transferred nearly $80 million worth of Ether from the Binance and OKX exchanges alone. Observers see this as a signal that larger investors are slowly regaining confidence in a stabilizing market.

While whales indulged in a buying frenzy, investors elsewhere withdrew their capital. Ethereum spot ETFs recorded outflows of nearly $94 million in mid-October, while Bitcoin ETFs saw comparable inflows on the same day. This imbalance suggests that institutional investors are currently more cautious about Ethereum than Bitcoin. Nevertheless, on-chain signals show that at least some see this period of weakness as an entry opportunity.

The parallel increase in stablecoin transfers on the Ethereum blockchain reinforces this picture. Within a month, their volume increased by around 400 percent to over $580 billion. Such movements often indicate that capital is being parked in anticipation of future purchases, which could be seen as a harbinger of increased market activity.

A closer look at the wallet movements of the past few weeks reveals a pattern that has been common in previous market cycles. Large addresses initially realize profits, thereby causing prices to fall, and then begin to accumulate again during periods of general uncertainty. The recent purchases could therefore be less short-term speculation than a strategic reallocation. Some analysts are even talking about the beginning of an accumulation phase that could last for weeks.

This theory is supported by data from other platforms, which show that wallets with over 10,000 ETH also saw significant increases in August and September. The number of these addresses reportedly rose to over 868,000 within a month—a 12-month high. This represents a growing group of long-term holders, traditionally considered a stabilizing element of the Ethereum market.

The outflows from spot ETFs initially appear to contradict this trend. However, a shift within the market structure could be emerging. While capital is flowing out of exchange-traded funds, the volume of direct on-chain purchases is increasing. Some analysts suspect that institutional players are increasingly seeking to hold Ether themselves rather than investing in fund products. This could be due to both tax and regulatory reasons. At the same time, data shows that despite all the short-term uncertainties, Ethereum still recorded billions of dollars in ETF inflows in August. Only the correction in October led to a noticeable slowdown.

Parallel to these market movements, the ecosystem itself is experiencing a technical and economic revival. DeFi protocols, Layer 2 solutions, and new projects are driving increasing blockchain usage. Among these projects, Virtuals Protocol has recently attracted attention – an Ethereum-based framework that enables the linking of virtual avatars and digital identities. The project is working to create an open infrastructure through which users can own their digital characters as NFTs and use them in various metaverse environments. Virtuals Protocol sees itself as a bridge between social interaction in Web3 and the commercial usability of digital identities.

These types of platforms demonstrate that Ethereum doesn't thrive solely on price movements, but rather on the applications that emerge on the blockchain. The growing interest in tokenized identities and interoperable avatars suggests that the next cycle could be less speculative and more utility-oriented. While Ethereum may be experiencing the "calm before the storm," many investors are turning their attention to new projects. Snorter is currently attracting particular attention .

Snorter Bot isn't just another crypto experiment that simply throws around buzzwords and launches the next meme coin. The project aims to be a real tool for traders—an intelligent, automated bot that detects and reacts to market movements in real time, before human traders can even click.

Now, the team behind Snorter is attracting attention with an unexpected decision: Shortly before the launch, 50 percent of the tokens originally intended for presale investors will be burned. Snorter is foregoing the usual fanfare of a presale and instead making a strong statement: The goal is not to create hype, but to earn trust. The native token, SNORT, is currently available for purchase in the presale. However, undecided investors should hurry, as the presale is already nearing completion. One SNORT costs $0.1083.

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