On-chain data shows that Ethereum whales have continued to accumulate more cryptocurrency as their share of the supply rises.
Ethereum whales now own about 43% of the total supply.
In new mail On X, market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock shared an update on how Ethereum supply concentration looks at the major coin holder groups on the network.
The groups in question here refer to the breakdown of the asset user base based on the size of the holding. IntoTheBlock has identified three main groups: Retail, Investors, and Whales.
The first group, the retail group, includes the smallest hands in the sector: those who own less than 0.1% of the circulating supply of ETH. This group represents the average investor who does not have a lot of influence in the market.
Once holders exceed this 0.1%, they begin to gain more prominence on the network, although their influence remains limited until they reach 1%. Users in this range are called investors.
Behind this range are the most powerful entities on the network: whales. Holders of these whales hold more than 1% of the ETH supply in their balance, which is equivalent to more than $2.83 billion at the current exchange rate.
Below is a chart shared by the analytics firm, which shows how the distribution of Ethereum supply has changed between these three pools over the history of the blockchain.
Looks like the Whales have been increasing their supply share recently | Source: IntoTheBlock on X
The chart shows that the hash pool makes up almost half of the circulating supply of Ethereum right now. More specifically, these small hands collectively own 48% of the Ethereum supply, with whales not far behind at 43%.
While whales make up a large portion of the supply today, this wasn’t always the case. As the chart shows, these giant entities only made up a small share of the market just a few years ago.
But since then, big money seems to have become more interested in the coin, as it has been steadily piling in. Interestingly, the group’s buying has accelerated since 2023, when the Shanghai upgrade was implemented.
The Shanghai upgrade was a hard fork of the Ethereum network that enabled investors to free up their holdings in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) contracts.
The acceleration in whale accumulation coinciding with this fork may be due to the fact that investors became more interested in participating, with the possibility of withdrawal.
Many of these holders would have deposited their coins through staking pools, which collectively hold massive holdings, so as interest rose, these whale entities would have seen their share of the supply rise.
While whale interest may be bullish for future growth in the cryptocurrency price, the centralization of supply on these few platforms/investors may not be so positive.
Ethereum price
At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at around $2,350, down over 4% over the past seven days.
The price of the coin has made some recovery over the last few days | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView
Featured image by Dall-E, IntoTheBlock.com, chart by TradingView.com
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