Major cryptocurrency holders are increasing their positions in Ethereum, Chainlink, and Bitcoin, according to on-chain data, in a sign of strategic accumulation that contrasts with recent retail-driven selling pressure.
Ethereum’s staking ratio reached a new milestone of 30% on Monday, locking over $120 billion worth of ETH on the network, according to Token Terminal. The all-time high indicates growing institutional confidence in the network’s value proposition.
On Tuesday, crypto mining firm Bitmine Immersion staked an additional 86,848 ETH, worth $279.4 million, bringing its total staked to 1.77 million ETH valued at $5.65 billion, according to Arkham Intelligence.
A separate, newly created wallet also withdrew $10 million in Ethereum from an exchange, further signaling high-conviction accumulation for the largest altcoin.
“Institutions primarily lock funds to reduce available liquidity on exchanges, effectively altering the supply-demand balance, which can amplify the market impact of any subsequent demand,” Jimmy Xue, Co-Founder and COO of quantitative yield protocol Axis, told Decrypt.
Acquiring a significant stake also allows these entities to participate in network governance, securing influence over future protocol upgrades, Xue added.
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The accumulation trend extends to other altcoins as well.
The top 100 Chainlink whales have accumulated 16.1 million LINK since mid-November 2025, a period during which the asset's price has hovered around $13.
“As retail sells off due to impatience & FUD, it's common to see smart money gather up more LINK to prepare for (or cause) the next pump,” market intelligence platform Santiment noted in a Tuesday tweet.
This divergence is reflected in trading data.
Spot market average order sizes have been dominated by whale activity since mid-December, while retail traders maintain dominance in the futures market, according to on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant.
Xue noted that such a divergence often signals a transfer of assets from short-term traders to long-term holders, which can indicate a floor in selling pressure. “However, this pattern is not a guaranteed predictor of a trend reversal, as it can also reflect inventory management by market makers,” he added.
Bitcoin is also noting a significant uptick in institutional demand, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju tweeted on Tuesday.
“577,000 Bitcoin, worth $53B, added over the past year, and still flowing in,” he added, referencing growth in U.S. custody wallets typically holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC each.