Number of Ether whales increases during 30% price drop

During a 30% price drop at the beginning of September, at least 68 Ethereum whales joined the network, potentially adding millions in holdings. 

According to Crypto Twitter user Ali Martinez, data from analytics site Santiment shows the number of investors holding between 1,000-10,000 Ether (ETH) — roughly $350,000-3.5 million as of this writing — increased by 68 in the three days since Aug. 31. The drop comes while the token fell 30.2% from $367 on Aug. 31 to a monthly low of $326 on Sept. 5.

‘@santimentfeed‘s holder distribution chart shows that as #Ethereum was falling, there was a spike in the number of addresses with millions of dollars in #ETH, colloquially known as whales.Roughly 68 new whales holding 1K to 10K $ETH have joined the network in the past 3 days. pic.twitter.com/HucYyMPQ2p

The growing DeFi market fueled demand for ETH starting in June, as did the rising gas costs — reaching a high of roughly 485 Gwei on Sept. 1 — with an increasing number of daily transactions. However, the average gas fee is now just 98 Gwei following the price drop coupled with projects like SUSHI plunging 88% in just 5 days. 

Ether continues to be the second-largest crypto asset by market capitalization at $39.7 billion, with Tether (USDT) trailing at $14.1 billion after gaining more than $3 billion on Sept. 1. At the time of writing, Ether is trading at $354, having risen 4% in the last 24 hours.