Major investors in the biggest altcoin Ether (ETH) likely moved almost $200 million to exchanges in a fresh hint that price volatility will now hit.
Data from on-chain analytics resource Santiment on July 23 suggested that 700,000 ETH ($182.7 million) made its way to exchange wallets in just three days this week.
ETH transfers “forewarning of the pump”
The movements coincided with known non-exchange wallet balances declining by roughly that figure, implying that whales were preparing to sell or trade ETH en masse.
“Nearly 700K $ETH were moved by top 100 whales in the past 3 days. Over this time, the combined balance of the top 100 non-exchange ETH addresses shrank by almost 700K ETH, or about ~$182.7M,” Santiment added in comments on Twitter.
“This was likely pre-pump positioning & a forewarning of the pump.”
Top Ether holder balance changes. Source: Santiment/ Twitter
ETH/BTC has seen renewed interest throughout the past weeks, fuelled by the DeFi token phenomenon which uses the ERC-20 protocol for transactions. Ethereum 2.0, the long-term protocol upgrade of Ether’s parent network, is set to launch its final testnet in early August.
Two later upticks in the price of Bitcoin this week had a further knock-on effect on Ether, with 24-hour gains totaling 7.8% at press time on Thursday — far ahead of Bitcoin’s 1.7%.
Previously, Cointelegraph forecast that fresh bullish action for ETH would continue, should resistance be overcome at $250.
“Ether’s (ETH) up-move on July 21 has carried it close to the overhead resistance zone of $249.195–$253.556. If the bulls can propel the price above the zone, the next leg of the uptrend is likely to resume,” analyst Rakesh Upadhyay wrote.
Van de Poppe: ETH is “undervalued”
Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michaël van de Poppe had similar thoughts.
“The total market cap of crypto will break out (most likely) upwards,” he tweeted.
“That’s not going to be through $BTC. That’s going to be through $ETH. As $ETH is very undervalued.”
Cryptocurrency traders have slowly eased their bearish outlook on the market given that Bitcoin, in particular, has regained some long-lost ground.
A rise to $9,400 on Tuesday saw BTC/USD hold levels at around $9,350, before a fresh march towards resistance closer to $10,000. Van de Poppe remains confident that the market has the strength to hit five figures.