Whales scoop $2B in ETH amid ETF demand and short squeeze

Whales ramped up accumulation as two addresses received approximately 43K ETH worth more than $153M. SharpLink Gaming also added 18.86K ETH valued at $66.6M to its treasury. Its total ETH purchase in the last 48 hours amounted to 30.755K ETH worth $106M. The Ether Reserve LLC, a subsidiary of The Ether Machine, bought 10.6K ETH for roughly $40M at $3.781K per ETH.

Onchain Lens reported that a new wallet with the address 0x86F911dEb6bB8CA received 24.294K Ether FalconX, valued at $86.5M. The Whale Alert platform also identified another whale address 0x40e912d100999b, which received about 18.675K ETH from Digital Galaxy, worth over $67M at $3.595K per ETH. 

One Web3 KOL also revealed that an institution had acquired $50M worth of ETH via OTC. A crypto influencer noted that a whale address had stacked $300M worth of ETH in the last three days. Arkham’s August 3 data showed that another whale bought $274M ETH in three days. Arkham also identified a fresh whale address that received $58.5M worth of Ether on August 2. Arkham’s data showed that nine fresh wallets accumulated over 628.6K ETH worth more than $2B. 

Whale activity surged in the past few months

🐋 A WHALE BOUGHT 24,294 $ETH
WORTH $86.22 MILLION TODAY.

WHALES ARE BUYING ETHEREUM LIKE
NEVER SEEN BEFORE IN HISTORY !!! pic.twitter.com/eYrmvkeYCq

— Ash Crypto (@Ashcryptoreal) August 4, 2025

Arkham’s data revealed that a whale or an institution bought 108.278K ETH for $284 million via OTC on June 4. On the same day, another whale acquired 3.046K ETH worth $7.97 million. The data continued to show more whale activity on June 5 as a whale linked to Consensys received $320 million worth of ETH from Galaxy Digital. 

On June 22, a whale added 17.07K ETH for $39 million, bringing their total ETH holdings to 132.536K Ether valued at over $303 million. The previous day, June 21, another whale had purchased 30K ETH worth approximately $73 million. That particular whale had bought 116.292K ETH worth $282.6 million in ten days. 

“A whale has bought 32,368 ETH worth $118 million. In just a week, he has accumulated 138K ETH worth $500 million.”

–Ash Crypto, Crypto Market Analyst

On July 21, another whale bought 34,033 ETH for $128.68 million. Arkham’s data also showed that a whale bought 60.646K Ether worth $226 million on July 25. There was more whale activity two days later, as July 27 saw another address receive 30.366K ETH valued at over $115 million, according to Ash Crypto. Panic sellers sold on July 31 after Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech. One whale bought the dip, acquiring 39.652 ETH for over $153 million.

Interest in ETH keeps rising

The Kobeissi Letter claimed that interest in ETH was rising because Ethereum was undergoing “one of the largest short squeezes in crypto history.” Kobeissi noted that ETH added a market cap of over $150 million since July 1. The analysis estimated that $1 billion worth of ETH short positions could be liquidated if Ether climbed another 10%. That development would likely send ETH prices catapulting to above $4K or maybe beyond. 

Institutional ETF demand was also soaring as Glassnode data showed that U.S. ETH ETFs recorded single-day inflows of more than $727 million in mid-July. The SosoValue platform confirmed that U.S. ETH ETFs had a cumulative total netflow of $9.49 billion as of August 1. The total value traded stood at 2.26 billion, while the total net assets were valued at over $20 billion.

SosoValue’s data on August 4 showed that the net inflow for ETH spot ETFs was $154 million between July 28 and August 1. However, only ETHA recorded net inflows. As of publication, the ETH ETF net asset ratio reached 4.7%.

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