Whales Hoard Ethereum and DeFi Tokens, Report Reveals
In recent days, large investors, known as “whales”, have been accumulating Ethereum (ETH), the native token of the decentralized exchange Uniswap, UNI, as well as several other decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens, according to data released by the platform Lookonchain monitoring system.
According to Lookonchain, an anonymous whale withdrew 299,133 UNI, worth $2.39 million, from the Gate.io exchange over the weekend. The same investor has been accumulating withdrawals from other altcoins in the DeFi sector recently. Between August 13th and September 12th, he withdrew 19,373 Aave (AAVE), valued at US$2.95 million, and 596 Maker (MKR), worth US$805,000, from Binance.
The withdrawal of tokens from exchanges demonstrates interest in “holding” (storing) crypto assets instead of selling them. This shows that cryptocurrencies have intrinsic value and can appreciate in value in the medium term.
Additionally, another large investor, related to investment firm Longling Capital, acquired 5,000 ETH totaling $12.34 million over the weekend. This wallet now holds a total of 68,064 ETH, valued at over $168 million.
Accumulation of tokens by whales
Another notable movement was recorded by a third whale, who purchased 31,173 AAVE tokens, equivalent to US$4.8 million, last Sunday. Soon after, this investor deposited the tokens on the Aave platform to borrow 2.7 million GHO stablecoin and converted them into USDC (the stablecoin pegged to the dollar). You later deposited the USDC to Coinbase to buy more AAVE.
Ethereum is trading around US$2,600 at the time of writing. The current price represents an increase of about 2% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.
Meanwhile, the UNI token, currently the 22nd digital asset by market value, is priced at US$7.93, showing a devaluation of around 1.6% in the last day. AAVE, the 44th crypto asset in the ranking, is trading at US$159, also with a decline of approximately 1.6% in the last 24 hours.
These whale movements reinforce the growing interest of large investors in DeFi assets as they accumulate large amounts of cryptocurrencies related to the decentralized sector.