Whale Activity Confirms Growing Preference for ETH Compared to Bitcoin

Key Insights

• Ethereum news: Lookonchain data reveals whale dumping Bitcoin for ETH.
• Ethereum exchange reserves extend decline to 3.108 million despite capitulation concerns.
• Stablecoin metrics reveal that Ethereum had the highest stablecoin growth among all blockchains in the last 3 years.

In recent Ethereum news, data suggests that whales might be building up a preference for ETH over Bitcoin.

Whale activity observed on Lookonchain revealed that a whale swapped 502.8 BTC in exchange for 14,500 ETH. The Same whale as reportedly swapped 1,969 BTC for 58,149 ETH.

The rising demand for ETH over BTC among whales aligned with the rising Ethereum dominance. Meanwhile, Bitcoin dominance has been consistently struggling to push back above 60%.

Still on whale activity, large order book data revealed that whales have been buying ETH on Coinbase and OKX during the weekend. Whales executed about $17 million worth of net spot buys in the last 3 weeks.

Whales also executed over $3.3 billion on OKX and Binance futures. Such large bets highlight growing bullish confidence in ETH price action.

The bullish sentiment among whales reflected the rally that the cryptocurrency achieved earlier in the week.  It rallied by about 13% in the first half of the week, before retreating and giving up most of those gains.

Ethereum News: Price Could be Headed Above $3,500 as Exchange Reserves Decline

ETH price versus BTC price gains from November lows highlighted the growing preference for the Ethereum-native coin.

ETH price exchanged hands at $3,075 at press time, which was over 16% from its lowest level in November.

In contrast, the Bitcoin price was up by slightly over 9% from its November low at its press time price. The more pronounced ETH price upside reflected an extended decline in its exchange reserves.

Roughly 248,711 ETH exited exchanges between 9 December and 14 December. That was equivalent to over $766 million worth of ETH at its current price tag.

The declining exchange reserves meant that investors were moving their coins to private wallets in an aggressive fashion. A move that is typically associated with long-term accumulation.

The declining ETH exchange reserves combined with a bullish bias from whales, suggest that the ETH price might be headed for a supply squeeze.

The cryptocurrency peaked at $3,477 courtesy of its bullish attempt in the first half of this past week.

Sustained demand and exchange outflows could see it rally back above $3,500 if macro conditions allow.

However, its bearish performance in the second half of the week could signal FUD induced by the upcoming BOJ interest rate decision.

Ethereum Still the King of Stablecoins, How it Fared over the Years

The stablecoin market has been growing rapidly in 2025, maintaining a trend that has prevailed since the 2021 bull run.

Regulatory developments this year have also placed stablecoins in the crosshairs of mass adoption.

Ethereum may be in position to leverage robust growth from the stablecoin market courtesy of its dominant position.

Its stablecoin count was roughly $97.9 million on 14 December 2021. That figure has since surged to over $171.8 billion at the time of observation.

The Ethereum network maintained a solid lead ahead of its competition. Tron was the runner-up with roughly $80.4 billion worth of stablecoins in its ecosystem, while Solana was third at $15.3 billion.

Ethereum’s stablecoin count grew by more than $54 billion since the start of 2025. This means the network is uniquely positioned to leverage growth opportunities as the world enters an aggressive stablecoin adoption phase.