Ethereum Whale Buys $100 Million ETH as On-Chain Activity Hits Record Highs

Arkham reveals that a mysterious whale has made a large Ethereum bet by purchasing a staggering amount of $ETH on Kraken. By its size, the purchase is comparable to the recent acquisition of Ethereum made by Tom Lee’s treasury company, Bitmine.

Meanwhile, Ethereum has somewhat moved down, still struggling to hold above the psychologically important $2,000 line. The good news is that Ethereum has hit a peak of on-chain activity, reaching new all-time highs and surpassing even those seen in 2021. However, it does not help to lift the price.

Ethereum whale scoops up $100 million $ETH

According to Arkham, an anonymous investor has withdrawn $92.97 million in Ethereum from Kraken. The whale then immediately split the purchase between two new wallets.

Some commentators believe that this whale is building a long-term position on the market. One X user suggested it could be Tom Lee buying more Ethereum from a new wallet.

SOMEONE JUST BOUGHT ALMOST $100M OF $ETH

A mysterious whale just withdrew $92.97M of $ETH from Kraken and distributed it to two fresh wallets.

Who do you think is buying $ETH? pic.twitter.com/2EijYa1ugX

— Arkham (@arkham) March 11, 2026

As reported by U.Today earlier this week, popular analyst and financial expert Tom Lee, who is now at the head of the crypto treasury company Bitmine, has accumulated an even bigger amount of Ethereum, worth $120 million. This purchase is related not to Lee himself but to Bitmine.

Last week, this company acquired 60,976 $ETH worth approximately $131 million. Bitmine now holds more than 4,534,563 Ethereum. That is close to $10 billion in fiat equivalent.

Ethereum activity spikes; Tom Lee and Saylor

Data aggregator CryptoQuant has reported that, currently, Ethereum has reached new highs in on-chain activity, surpassing those witnessed by the market in 2021. Here, Ethereum has left Bitcoin behind as the use of smart contracts, as well as the number of active wallets, has reached a new peak, along with the number and frequency of transfers.

Ethereum activity is at all-time highs.

Active addresses, transfers, and smart contract calls keep rising, even above 2021 levels, while $ETH price is down over 50%.

The reason: capital outflows. Network growth ≠ price if liquidity is leaving. pic.twitter.com/qwxHyCY1KZ

— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) March 10, 2026

Still, the Ethereum price is 50% down from its all-time high of $4,953 in August last year. The reason for this, named by CryptoQuant, is capital outflows, and the network expansion is not helping drive the price up in this case. However, Tom Lee believes in the bullish future of Ethereum.

He and Michael Saylor represent two different views of the future of the financial system: while Lee believes it will run fully on Ethereum, Saylor bets that all global finances will be based on Bitcoin.

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