If you take a quick look at the rating at CoinMarketCap, you will notice that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency bigger than Ethereum in terms of market capitalization. As of the date of writing, the ETH market cap is over $201 billion with a single token worth more than $1,640. Obviously, ETH is a popular crypto investment. But who invested the most and what are some other options? Let’s find this out in this article.
Introduction to ETH whales
In the crypto industry, whales are individuals or organizations that hold the biggest amounts of a certain coin. The biggest volumes of ETH are mostly held on wallets of Binance and Kraken exchange platforms. As for individuals, Vitalik Buterin is the biggest whale in ETH. This isn’t a big secret, since the developer was one of those who created this blockchain back in 2014.
The status of Buterin as the biggest ETH whale was revealed in 2018 by himself. He disclosed his wallet address, which enabled other investors to follow his activities. As for the date of writing, it’s reported that he owns around 250,001 ETH, which equals more than 305,000,000 in US dollars. He also has other coins in his wallet but their volumes are usually lower than 1,000 in US dollars. It’s also interesting to learn that the ETH holdings of Buterin are constantly changing as he often donates his crypto coins to different charity initiatives.
Despite the fact that Buterin holds a significant portion of ETH holdings, he isn’t the only Ethereum whale. Many other individuals made considerable investments in this cryptocurrency as well. However, not all have been disclosed yet, since their addresses remain anonymous.
Information about crypto whales is very important for other enthusiasts of digital currencies since their transactions and other activities can have a big influence on the whole network. If you follow the activities of whales, you can predict further tendencies. For example, sales of large amounts of coins will eventually cause a price decrease.
Are there any investments preferred by ETH whales?
It sounds natural that people who can afford to invest big sums of money in ETH are likely to be aware of what is going on in the market. That’s why they might also decide to put their money into some other ambitious projects to generate more returns in the future.
Besides, investing in other coins is one of the major principles of diversification. This approach not only increases potential returns but also decreases the probability of losses. Let’s take a look at the top-3 virtual coins in which ETH whales invest their money.
1. USD Coin
According to the latest reports, USDC is the most popular cryptocurrency among ETH whales (except for ETH itself). It’s curious that volumes invested by whales in USDC highly exceed amounts invested in other digital assets.
Whales decide to invest in USDC, not because of the potential returns but rather to secure a portion of their funds. The thing is that USDC is one of the most prominent stablecoins, meaning it’s backed by real USD reserves and won’t drop its value overnight. In fact, this is a dollar but in the digital space.
As for today, the market capitalization of USDC, reaching $43 billion, allows the project to hold 5th place in the rating of the biggest cryptocurrencies. It might increase over time with a wider adaption of the coin as a reliable, quick, and cheap payment method for cross-border transactions.
2. Tether
As we can see, ETH whales are quite interested in buying stablecoins. Tether, traded under the USDT ticker symbol, is a bigger project than USDC in terms of market capitalization as it reaches around $70 billion. This means that USDT is the third-biggest cryptocurrency after BTC and ETH.
Except for being stablecoin, USDT has one more advantage making it a more favorable investment for ETH whales. They can stake their USDT tokens and earn interest. This and a wide adaption of Tether across industries make it one of the most popular investments in the crypto industry.
3. Chiliz
This is rather a surprising option to see in this list. While the first two coins are in the top-5 biggest cryptos, Chiliz is holding the 55th position with a market capitalization of around $953 million. Its popularity among ETH whales is driven mainly by its good start at the beginning of 2023. Now, it’s valued at $0.142, meaning it’s a low-price crypto investment, which also increases its popularity among investors seeking ambitious projects.