Whales and hackers are winning the Ethereum pump

Ethereum (ETH) is riding on a huge bullish wave, smashing all the highly anticipated price levels. ETH just smashed past $3,400 mark, looking to get over $3,500 now, and whales can’t keep calm. The largest altcoin price has jumped by 23% over the last 7 days.

The ongoing Ethereum price surge has grabbed the attention from Bitcoin’s ATH rally and triggered sentiments of altcoin season in the market. Bitcoin price dropped to below the $118K level after hitting a fresh ATH of above $123K. The global digital assets market cap surged by 1.5% over the last day to stand at $3.81 trillion.

Trump buys, hacker sells

According to the data shared by Lookonchain, Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial (WLF) splashed $10 million USDC to buy 3,007 ETH at an average of $3,326. The fund has been hoarding ETH since November, now sitting on 70,505 ETH worth $230 million, with a neat $7 million in paper gains. It added that from November 29, 2024, to March 5, 2025, WLF has accumulated 66,275 Ethereum (approx. worth $215 million) at an average price of $3,243.

They’re not alone as SharpLink Gaming also jumped in. In just 5 hours, they vacuumed up 20,279 ETH (approx. worth $68.38 million). This move brings their 8-day binge to 111,609 ETH (worth $343 million). However, a mysterious whale 0x35fb resurfaced and scooped 7,980 ETH from Kraken. This whale has been busy buying 88,292 ETH in the last week alone. That’s nearly $300 million drifting off exchanges. This suggests that someone’s getting ready for something big or knows something we don’t.

Meanwhile, not every whale is swimming upstream as two major players have dumped a combined 178,080 ETH (approx. worth $528 million). Trend Research, which bought 184,115 ETH between February and June at $2,118 average, just cashed out 79,470 ETH for $250 million. They still hold 105,664 Ethereum.

Then there’s the whale who made $30 million in past ETH trades. It bought over 132K ETH during June’s dip and is now cashing out fast, unloading 98K ETH since the pump began. The whale still got 35K ETH on standby, though.

Even hackers are going all out. Remember the Infini exploit from February—the attacker who looted $49.5M and spent it on 17,696 ETH at $2,798. As ETH’s price jumped, its holdings ballooned to $59.6 million. He just sold 1,770 ETH for nearly $6 million.

ETH ETFs had their best day ever

This spike is not Whales’ game only, as ETH linked ETFs reported their best day ever. On Wednesday alone, they pulled in a record $726.74 million in net inflows, and now total ETH ETF assets top $16.41 billion. BlackRock’s ETHA led with nearly $500 million while Fidelity’s FETH stood second with $113 million of inflow.

Ethereum price is up 22% this month, and running up by 117% over the last 90 days. Meanwhile, we haven’t even broken the all-time high yet. The ETF effect is real, as July’s inflows have already hit $2.27 billion, the highest since these funds launched last year. ETH is trading at an average price of $3,463 at press time. Its 24-hour trading volume spiked by 34% to stand at $51 billion.

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