Whales Add $28 Mln Worth Of Wrapped BTC, DeFi Trade To Spike?

The world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) is finally showing some recovery from the recent dump. BTC prices have registered a marginal increase of around 1% in the last 7 days. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s Ethereum (ETH) spin off Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) registered a huge spike in its trading volume.

ETH whale “Saruman” adds $25 mln worth of WBTC

Interestingly, the biggest of the Ethereum whales’ recent recorded transactions shows a sudden increase in WBTC accumulation. According to WhaleStats, the ETH whales have added over $28.6 million worth of WBTC tokens in the last 24 hours. This move has shot WBTC’s 24 hour trading volume of $329 million by more than 85%.

An ETH whale named “Saruman” alone has added around $25.3 million worth of WBTC tokens. As per the data, the ETH wallet added $11.9 million worth of WBTC tokens in a single transaction. The “Saruman” single handedly holds over $62.4 million worth of Wrapped Bitcoin tokens.

However, the WBTC token is placed in the list of top 10 tokens held by the biggest of the ETH whales. Data reveals that ETH wallets hold more than $462 million worth of WBTC tokens.

Given WBTC’s use in smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, the move could represent increasing interest in DeFi applications among major whales. DeFi currently offers better returns than the broader crypto market.

Otherside land auction spikes ETH gas fee

The WBTC token is trading at an average price of $38,949, at the press time. The Wrapped Bitcoin prices are up by over 2% in the last 24 hours. According to Coinmarketcap, WBTC is the 16th largest token with a total market capitalization of $10.8 Billion.

Whales appear to be adding the BTC’s ETH spin off amid the recent gas fees surge. According to reports, the Yuga Labs Metaverse “Otherside” land auction caused a skyrocketing increase in the blockchain’s gas fees.

A plot of land on the “Otherside” priced over $5,700 with some spiked transaction costs. The much hyped metaverse auction lead to escalating the Ethereum transaction cost by around $200 at one time. After the launch, gas fees for minting the Yuga Labs NFT breached $123 million with each Otherdeed requiring about $6,000, reports Fortune.