Ethereum whale unlocks $800M to join Plasma liquidity rush as new chain hits $2.9B TVL

Whales rushed to make plasma deposits into Plasma’s vaults, as the new chain immediately offered DeFi opportunities. An Ethereum whale moved funds from their wallet for the first time in four years to join the liquidity rush. 

An Ethereum whale moved coins from their wallet for the first time in four years, to join the liquidity rush to Plasma vaults. The chain, which only launched a day ago, is now drawing active deposits, expanding the value locked on multiple DeFi apps. 

The early-bird Ethereum whale acquired their ETH through mining and Bitfinex purchases. Arkham identified the wallet, noting the entity moved a total of $800M in ETH. The entity held a total of $2B in the relatively old wallets, comparable to some of the large-scale treasuries. 

The entity moved 200K ETH, the wallet’s first activity in the past four years. 

ALERT: $800M OF $ETH JUST MOVED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 4 YEARS

An individual entity holding over $2 Billion of $ETH just moved over $800M of $ETH.

Their last movement was 4 years ago, and they woke up to deposit to Plasma. https://t.co/4xtNZKIGLy

— Arkham (@arkham) September 26, 2025

On-chain data shows a wallet tagged as possibly belonging to Bitfinex also moving coins to one of the intermediary addresses. Then, the intermediary wallet borrowed $200M in USDT from Aave V3 and sent the funds in several tranches to the Plasma USD Vault. 

Plasma draws in a record value

Plasma is one of the fastest-growing chains, competing with some of the biggest venues. Within a day, the Plasma USD Vault invited a rush of whale deposits. 

On the day after the launch, the Plasma USD Vault was supplied with over $212M in USDT, receiving constant inflows ranging from whale-sized transfers to retail $5 transactions. 

The USD Vault is part of the growing DeFi sector on Plasma. The chain boosted its initial supply of $2B in USDT, adding more from whales and supporters. As a result, Plasma was supplied with $2.9B in total value locked. The chain already hosts versions of Aave and other DeFi apps. 

Plasma’s XPL retains gains in its first day of trading

Plasma’s XPL token also tapped the enthusiasm for the chain on the first day of trading. XPL peaked at $1.42, later retaining most of its gains at $1.25. 

The token also retained its bullish outlook despite the relatively large airdrop with bonuses even for the smallest ICO depositors. The Plasma presale drew in both whales and retail, but rewarded all with a sizeable airdrop of XPL. Thus, even retail buyers who spent as low as $1 in gas and made a small deposit received around $10,000 as a bonus reward. 

At the same time, XPL did not crash, similar to other airdrop tokens, and for its first day entered an ‘up only’ mode. The token also received additional attention from perpetual DEX traders. In the early hours of XPL trading, Hyperliquid had higher open interest compared to the larger centralized exchanges. 

Aster, the closest Hyperliquid competitor, could not tap the rush to XPL, as its platform experienced a configuration error. XPL prices had anomalous levels of up to $4, triggering liquidations. Aster noted the issue was internal and not maliciously caused, promising to compensate all affected traders for their losses.

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