The anonymous Ethereum whale is back, and it was big. Top US exchange “Kraken” hit by $5,099 pull $ETH Equivalent to approximately $15.17 million. Whale immediately staked the entire amount on Lido and converted it to stETH within minutes.
According to Arkham records, the whale’s address “0x761F2F” has not been active for over three months. Its last major activity was a series of multi-million dollar USDC transfers between Symbiosis and Hyperliquid, along with other stablecoin operations via the MetaRouter and CoW protocols.
However, this latest move is different in scale and market conditions.
After withdrawal $ETH At approximately $2,943 per coin, Whale didn’t have to wait long and immediately sent all 5,099 coins. $ETH Lido received 5.1K stETH in return, which is now in the same wallet.
Currently, the balance is just over $15 million, almost all of which is at stake. $ETHrevealed major long-term plans.
Ethereum price context matters
It’s interesting that this on-chain pivot happened. $ETH was trading near the local support zone at $2,939. That zone acted as a psychological barrier throughout January. This suggests that whales are either viewing the current weakness as a buying opportunity or are expecting a strong upswing in the staking economy.
There are no DEX swaps or fragmentations, just a complete conversion of CEX liquidity to CEX liquidity. $ETH Staking exposure. With these whales migrating to stTETH, Lido Island may see a new influx cycle in the coming weeks if other whales follow the signal.