The total number of addresses holding at least 1,000 ETH has increased in the past year, indicating that investors have been actively buying the dip.
Ether sharks and whales increase
On-chain data released by Santiment, a leading blockchain analytics platform, shows investors have taken advantage of the prolonged crypto winter to accumulate ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency.
Specifically, Santiment on-chain data show that the total number of ether addresses holding a minimum of 1,000 ETH (sharks and whales) has increased by 380, representing a 5.7% surge compared to last year.
Vitalik Buterin’s Ethereum completed its transition to the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism earlier this month through the Shanghai (Shapella) upgrade, which enabled the withdrawal of staked ether (ETH) by validators.
Despite initial fears that enabling staked ether withdrawals from the beacon chain would trigger a huge crash in the price of ETH, the reverse has been the case. The price of ether (ETH) has posted a 7.5% increase in the last 30 days.
At the time of writing, ether is exchanging hands for $1,906.76, representing an increase of 1% in the 24-hour timeframe. ETH currently has a market cap of $229,730,695,835, with a 24-hour trading volume of $14,021,032,644, according to CoinGecko.
