Ethereum: whale accumulation underway or just isolated cases?
The Cryptonomist
05-19 17:32

Recently several whales have bought Ethereum. 

Is this a real accumulation phase, or are these isolated cases? 

In fact, we must not forget that there are many whales operating in financial markets, therefore one or two isolated cases might mean nothing if, precisely, they were truly isolated. 

It is therefore necessary not to limit ourselves to analyzing what individual whales do, but also to analyze what all existing whales do as a whole. 

Whale accumulation

One of the most famous Ethereum whales is Bitmine.

Yesterday the president of Bitmine, Tom Lee, stated that the company acquired another 71,672 ETH, thus bringing its Ethereum reserves to 5.278 million ETH (about 11 billion dollars).

Besides Bitmine, however, there are other whales that are accumulating ETH, so much so that since the beginning of May the top 100 Ethereum holders appear to have bought more than 140,000 ETH. 

On-chain it even appears that a single address has accumulated 6,627 ETH in just three days, and this trend has been going on for months. 

The circulating hypothesis is that these whales are trying to “buy the dip” on Ethereum, that is, buy ETH as long as the price is low precisely with the aim of accumulating as much as possible. 

This is both institutional and retail accumulation, but there also appear to be strong sales.

The overall picture

By analyzing the overall market flows, and in particular those dominated by whales, it turns out that accumulation has indeed taken place, but only at times.

During the January drop in the price of ETH, whales were overall mostly inactive, waiting for the right moment to buy. 

The turning point came at the end of February, after the price bounced from about $1,800 to more than $2,000.

However, accumulation was very limited during that first rebound, also because after going back above $2,300 in March, the price of ETH then fell back below $2,000.

Starting from the end of March, however, when the second rebound was triggered, accumulation started again, although once more in a very limited way. 

In total, whales accumulated ETH by buying it at prices between $2,000 and $2,140, which is in line with the current price level. This leads to the belief that accumulation could indeed continue. 

Previous sales

The problem is that these relatively recent purchases are still far fewer than the sales at the end of 2025. 

Between October 2025 and the end of January 2026, ETH selling volumes were really significant, so much so that selling pressure spiked, causing the price to collapse from almost $4,700 to nearly $1,800.

The subsequent purchases still have a volume that is only a tiny fraction of that of the late 2025 sales, even though obviously the accumulation period has lasted for barely three months, while the previous liquidation period lasted for almost four months. 

Moreover, the volume of ETH purchases between April and July 2025, when prices were in line with current levels and there was a bull run underway that led the price in August to record new all-time highs, was still higher than current levels. 

This leads to the belief that either the current accumulation period is not yet over, or that the trend could change and we might even at some point return to a period of selling. 

Forecasts

Forecasts regarding the price trend of Ethereum in the coming days, or in the coming months, are conflicting. 

The short-term trend actually still seems bearish, due to a weakening of the trend itself, but already in the short-to-medium term it appears bullish.

This apparent contrast could in fact also have its own logic, but it says a lot about how little clarity there currently is in this market. 

The key resistances at this time seem to be positioned between $2,360 and $2,400, also because every recent breakout attempt in that range has been rejected. 

However, to have a strong bullish signal it would even be necessary to see a return above $2,500, something that at this moment still seems far off. 

In the medium term the discrepancies increase even further. 

Among analysts there are those who imagine an ETH price that could return to $1,800 in the coming months, while others see it even rising above $3,000 by the end of the year. 

These discrepancies are so large that it is probably not advisable at this time to make such forecasts at all. 

In the medium-to-long term, however, optimistic forecasts still seem to prevail, also because many expect new all-time highs sooner or later with a break above $5,000. 

Ethereum is currently in a consolidation phase below a key resistance, but within a context of solid on-chain fundamentals and persistent macro pressure. The market, however, is polarized, so much so that there is no clear consensus on possible future developments.

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