As analysts raised the possibility of a spot Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) ETF approval, big whales ramped up their bullish bets on the world's second-largest cryptocurrency.
What Happened: James Fickel, one of the wealthiest cryptocurrency investors, swapped 350 Wrapped Bitcoin (CRYPTO: WBTC) for 6,905 Ether earlier in the day, according to on-chain tracking platform Lookonchain. The newly acquired supply was worth more than $25 million at prevailing prices.
As the #SEC requires exchanges to expedite the update of 19B-4 documents on $ETH #ETFs, the probability of approval of $ETH #ETFs has greatly increased.
James Fickel(@jamesfickel) continued to borrow 350 $WBTC($25M) from #Aave and exchanged it for 6,905 $ETH to go long the... pic.twitter.com/IYFmQyHVIP— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 21, 2024
Fickel has been longing ETH/BTC pair since the launch of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) spot ETFs in January. The founder of Amaranth Foundation has exchanged around 2,741 WBTC for 50,693 ETH since the beginning of the year.
However, the bullish sentiment was not restricted to Fickel. In the last 24 hours, the number of traders going long on ETH rose dramatically against those shorting the cryptocurrency, as per the reading of Coinglass' Longs/Shorts Ratio.
Why It Matters: Confidence in ETH comes as well-informed analysts raised their odds of a spot ETH ETF approval from 25% to 75%, resulting in a broader market rally.
The turnaround in mood comes after months of gloomy expectations from experts about the approval, preventing the cryptocurrency from rising like other assets like Bitcoin.
ETH's large transaction volume more than tripled in the last 24 hours, indicating strong engagement from whales, according to IntoTheBlock. Alongside, balances of long-term holders rose 0.38%, suggesting that the transactions were buyer-dominated.
Price Action: At the time of writing, ETH was exchanging hands at $3,695.39, following a 19% spike in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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