Ethereum Dips To 14-Month Low Against Bitcoin As Buterin, ETH Whales Transfer $60M ETH

The Ethereum-to-Bitcoin ratio hit a 14-month low as major token holders, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, moved significant amounts of coins to crypto exchanges, possibly as a prelude to selling. Data from TradingView showed that ETH-BTC fell to around 0.0602 on Wednesday, the lowest reading since July.

The recent decline supports some market analysts’ bearish predictions about ETH’s value relative to BTC. Matrixport’s Head of Strategy and Research, Marcus Thielen, reported on CoinDeskTV that Ethereum’s protocol earnings have dropped over the past three months. He anticipates that Bitcoin will keep performing better than the altcoins, including Ethereum.

Furthermore, Benjamin Cowen, a crypto analyst and founder of IntoTheCryptoverse, has shared similar views. He predicted that Ethereum’s value might drop significantly.

The price drop coincides with substantial ETH sell-offs initiated by major players in the market. Data indicates that some whales, including Vitalik Buterin, are transferring their Ethereum to crypto exchanges.

Ethereum Holders Undertaking Significant Moves

Vitalik Buterin has transferred 300 ETH (worth roughly $490,000) to the major exchange Kraken, PeckShield Alert reported on Sept. 19. The transaction involved two segments in which 100 ETH and 200 ETH were sent separately. Surprisingly, even following this transfer, Buterin’s wallet “0x1Db” still holds 2,451 ETH ( worth about $4.04 million).

#PeckShieldAlert #Vitalik Vb2 -labeled address has transferred 300 $ETH ($490K) to #Kraken pic.twitter.com/NI3pn9cUZK

— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) September 19, 2023

Another large holder deposited 30,000 ETH (worth nearly $50 million) to crypto exchanges KuCoin, OKX, and Binance, blockchain sleuth Lookonchain noted. Furthermore, Lookonchain identified another wallet that acquired tokens from Ethereum’s initial coin offering (ICO) nine years ago. This particular wallet deposited 6,000 ETH, valued at approximately $10 million, into Kraken earlier this week.

This entity got 255,000 ETH during the ICO, and now it’s worth a whopping $423 million. The token was initially worth around 31 cents; selling it now for $1,650 means a 527,000% profit.

Despite the negative predictions, investors are hopeful for an Ethereum futures ETF approval in mid-October. In 2021, when the SEC approved the Bitcoin Future ETF, BTC increased in value by over 60%. Some experts believe that ETH could follow the same path and overtake Bitcoin by the end of the year.

At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $1,630, down less than 1.1% in the past 24 hours. It is down more than 65% from its peak of $4,878.