After several months of gradual declines, the number of Ethereum wallets containing between 1,000 and 100,000 ETH jumped to a local peak. At the same time, smaller ETH addresses have also been on the rise, perhaps stacking for the upcoming Merge.
Increased ETH Whales
Data provided by Santiment revealed that so-called whales (holding between 1,000 and 100,000 ETH) had seen a sharp rise in recent weeks after hitting a low in May, ending a negative streak. of several months.
More precisely, there were 131 new such wallets emerging until Sunday, with the total number briefly exceeding 6,666.
The trend is also similar for small ETH investors. Those who hold at least one full have reached an all-time high of over 1.5 million. Addresses with 100 pieces or more, on the other hand, hit a 15-month high of over 45,000.
The growing interest from smaller and larger investors could be attributed to the upcoming Merge. Perhaps the most anticipated event of the year in the crypto community, it will see Ethereum’s transition from PoW to PoS.
The network has been slowly preparing to take this leap and the 9th phantom fork going live last week was another step in that direction.
ETH at Monthly High
Just a few days before the aforementioned shadow fork went live, ETH had plummeted to around $1,000, and the community feared another drop below that line. However, the hype didn’t allow such a dip, and the second-largest crypto went on a roll.
It initially rose above $1,100 but continued to climb and just a few hours ago approached $1,500, which became its highest price in over a month. This means that the asset has increased by around 50% in less than a week.
Somewhat expectedly, this increase in ETH’s price has affected the total value locked in the ETH 2.0 Deposit Contract, which is now up to about $18B – a monthly high.
