Ethereum (ETH) Leads Altcoin Rally With Shark Addresses Accumulating

The broader cryptocurrency market is up by nearly 4% and Ethereum (ETH) is leading the altcoin market rally with more than 5% price gains. The world’s second-largest crypto has seen a strong surge gaining more than 15% since the beginning of 2023.

As of press time, ETH is trading 5.4% up at a price of $1402 and a market cap of $171.6 billion. Despite the selling pressure in Ethereum over the last two months, shark addresses have been accumulating heavily. On-chain data provider Santiment reports:

Ethereum has jumped above $1,400 for the first time since November 7th. Over the past 10 weeks, ~3,000 new shark addresses (holding 100 to 10,000 $ETH) have shown up on the network. 48,556 shark addresses is the highest level recorded since Feb, 2021.

Besides, the Ethereum network activity has also been on the uptick since the Ethereum gas fee remains under $2 over the last two months. The average gas fee on the Ethereum blockchain currently sits at just $1.64. As per the new bullish pattern on technical charts, ETH could rally up to $1,500 further.

These Altcoins Compete With Ethereum

Along with Ethereum, some other altcoins have been performing extremely well recently. Over the last few weeks, Cardano and Litecoin have emerged as traders’ favorites. Other altcoins which have recently seen a strong surge in address activity are XRP and Chainlink. On-chain data provider Santiment reports:

XRP Network is +6.2% the past 24 hours while the majority of #crypto has declined today. In part, this is due to a major pump in address activity over the past week. We have also seen a pattern of big social dominance spikes leading to $XRP price gains.

Similarly, the total number of unique LINK interactions over the last two months has been on the rise. The address activity on Chainlink has returned back to the 2021 levels. This network utility is likely to reflect further in the LINK price going ahead. Currently, LINK is trading 3.75% up at a price of $6.34 and a market cap of $3.2 billion.

At the same time, crypto market sharks and whales are accumulating he top stablecoin Tether and preparing for the next bullrun. There are now 21,459 addresses that hold $100k or more $USDT, close to making a new all-time high.