Bargain Hunting? Ethereum Whales Are Buying These Cryptos Amid A Crash

With the crypto market plummeting to 2022 lows, major whales appear to be heavily buying stablecoins and a few select tokens.

While this has done little to support prices, given that selling is largely outpacing buying, whale transactions could help indicate which tokens are set for a quicker recovery. Some major cryptos also appear to have stabilized from recent losses, and are trading slightly above intraday lows.

Data from Whalestats shows that Ethereum (ETH) whales bought ETH, USDC and USDT the most in the past 24 hours. The demand for stablecoins is driven largely by volatility driving traders into safe havens. The two stablecoins have also largely retained their peg through the market crash.

Whales buy into tokens with utility

Data showed that whales bought an average of nearly $2 million worth of ETH per transaction. While the token has slumped nearly 17% in the past week, this buying indicates that whales expect ETH to find its bottom soon.

ETH’s upcoming switch to a proof-of-stake network has also boosted confidence that the token will become more widely adopted, particularly by institutions.

Other non-stablecoin cryptos that were purchased by whales were Shiba Inu (SHIB), Chainlink (LINK) and  Decentraland’s Mana (MANA). Both SHIB and MANA are associated with their own major metaverses- giving them some utility. LINK is a major player in Ethereum smart contracts, which also gives the token a real-world use case.

For the first time since its launch, Terra’s UST stablecoin made it into the top-10 most-purchased list, likely indicating whales were buying the now depegged stablecoin in anticipation of a recovery.

The search for utility mirrors a trend seen in stock markets, where investors are largely buying into economy-linked sectors such as commodities and consumer staples.

But selling still outweighs buying

Despite some buying among whales, overnight data shows that bearish sentiment is largely guiding the market. Selling volumes far outweighed any buying among whales, with ETH seeing an average $5.5 million sold per transaction.

This has been reflected in the price action, with most of the aforementioned tokens down sharply in the past week. While the crypto market is now showing signs of stabilization, it is unclear what direction the market will take in the near-term.