Which Altcoins Are Accumulating Crypto Whales?

After the rapid industry-wide retracement that followed the March 10 USDC short, the global crypto market capitalization bounced back above $1.2 trillion in April. Will the increasing activity from the whales push the rally further?

Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade and Bitcoin’s rise above $30,000 have dominated the media headlines recently. However, On-chain data reveals that strategic major investors have given biased attention to a handful of altcoins.

Crypto Market Cap has jumped by 5% since the beginning of April. On-chain data reveals the direction major institutional investors are turning their attention to to make the most of the crypto rally.

Crypto Whales Defend The Graph (GRT) at $0.10 Support

The Graph is a blockchain data indexing protocol that powers many applications in DeFi and the wider Web3 ecosystem. By March 11, the GRT token had fallen nearly 48% from its year-to-date high of $0.20.

Between the recent local low of $0.11 recorded on March 9, the whales holding 1 million to 10 million coins have added 13 million tokens worth roughly $2 million.

With GRT now trading around $0.15, the accumulation wave among whale investors appears to have triggered a price rally.

Lido DAO (LDO) whales leading the Shapella upgrade

Lido DAO (LDO) is the initial token for Lido Finance, a DeFi platform that facilitates Ethereum 2.0 staking via liquidity staking derivative. Soon after the Ethereum network upgrade was announced in March, crypto whales started stacking their LDO bags. The timing suggests that the major investors were looking at front-end gains from increased trading activity that could follow the network upgrade.

In recent weeks, the LDO coin has witnessed increased buying momentum from crypto whales holding millions to 10 million LDOs. The chart below shows how whales bought nearly 33 million tokens between March 5th and April 12th. At the press time market cap of $2.39, the accumulated tokens are worth about $80 million.

When whales invest such significant sums in a short period of time, it instills trust in other network participants. If the crypto whales continue to HODL, LDO could soon break above the $3 milestone.

Cohort of crypto whales remain undeterred despite problems with Litecoin (LTC).

On February 15, Litecoin briefly broke above $100 for the first time since May 2022. However, the rally was short-lived as LTC quickly returned to below $70 by March 11. Interestingly, this volatility has not deterred the group of crypto whales who hold 1 million to 10 million LTC coins.

According to Santiment, this group of whales began buying weeks before LTC hit its year-to-date high of $102 on February 15.

The following chart shows that the whales bought 2.37 million LTC between February 3rd and April 12th.

With current prices at $94, they have recently added tokens worth over $220 million. If the whales continue to pile up, it’s only a matter of time before LTC breaks the $100 barrier again.

Optimism (OP) Whales remain bullish despite sideways price action

Optimism (OP) is a layer-two blockchain built on the Ethereum network. It improves the scalability of Ethereum, keeping trustless roll-up records of transactions before they are finally secured on Ethereum.

OP has delivered a rock-bottom performance in the past week, but on-chain data shows that crypto whales remain bullish. Between March 1 and April 12, whales with 1 million to 10 million OP in their wallets added 256 million tokens.

The recently added 256 million OP tokens are worth nearly $490 million at current prices of $2.39. Although the price has fallen 13% in the same period, the whale accumulation trend may soon trigger a rebound.

Toncoin (TON) whales are back in action

Toncoin (TON) is the native token of the decentralized layer-1 blockchain developed by the encrypted messaging platform Telegram.

According to blockchain research firm Santiment, TON whalers are back in accumulation mode after taking profits in early March. Between March 20 and April 13, whales with individual balances of 100,000 to 1 million TON added another 44 million coins.

At today’s market value of $2.22, the whale’s newly acquired coins are worth $97 million. In particular, the buy/sell pattern of this group of whales has been closely correlated with price performance since September 2022. If this condition holds, TON holders can expect more upside in the coming weeks.

In conclusion, the activity of crypto whales can have a ripple effect across the cryptocurrency market. Strategic sharks and retail investors may also choose to keep an eye on these assets that attract the attention of large investors.