An Ethereum whale has just bought $103 million worth of ETH earlier today, on-chain intelligence company Arkham reported. While the transfers themselves were made to newly created wallet addresses, they originated from “hot wallets” associated with institutional platforms like FalconX and BitGo. Arkham speculates that the buying pattern is similar to that of Tom Lee’s earlier purchases through BitMine.
The analytics website tweeted:
In total, this entity bought 45,000 ETH, worth close to $103 million at press time. Out of this, 20000 ETH was purchased from FalconX, while 25000 ETH was bought from BitGo. It remains unclear whether these addresses will be used for future purchases.
Arkham noted that the transaction structures, including the use of fresh wallets and sourcing from established institutional liquidity providers, mirrored BitMine’s earlier purchases, but there is no concrete evidence or press release from Tom Lee’s firm yet.
The prominent Ethereum bull is known for his outspoken take on the future of Ethereum despite its ongoing troubles. He once called it a “wartime store of value” amid the geopolitical tensions and market volatility we have seen over the last 6 months, especially during the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. Operating similarly to Michael Saylor’s Strategy but focused on ETH, BitMine aims to eventually hold around 5% of the digital currency’s total supply in its coffers.
 
Presently, the total market cap of Ethereum is around $274 billion, and the company owns around 5 million ETh or 4.21% of the supply. It needs to shell out about $1.7 billion more at current prices to reach that ambitious, magical target dubbed the “Alchemy of 5%”. Saylor’s Strategy also has a similar goal, but it will require roughly 5x more investment because it is only focused on Bitcoin, which has a market capitalization of $1.5 trillion.
Bitcoin Whales vs Ethereum Whales
While this kind of whale buying is quite common with Bitcoin, with the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, it is a different story with only a handful of known organizations looking to spend this big on the cryptocurrency. Ethereum’s ETF has also failed to attract the same level of attention as Bitcoin’s, so it is easier to narrow down the possible identities of buyers, especially in a bear market like this.
Whether BitMine made this purchase or not, it is evident that there is growing institutional interest in Ethereum’s long-term utility and staking economics. Large players continue to accumulate and lock up supply through on-chain staking, a feature unavailable to Bitcoin investors.
