Ethereum whales accelerated the movement of ETH from leading cryptocurrency exchanges during the Asian session on Monday. According to crypto analytics and blockchain tracking firm Whale Alert, a leading crypto wallet moved 40,000 ETH from the digital exchange, Gemini to a crypto wallet on 12 July 2021.

The total value of the transfer stands at around $86 million. The mentioned Ethereum transaction was executed at 3:39 UTC. The latest transfer came nearly 2 weeks after a leading Ethereum wallet moved 81,760 ETH from a digital wallet to Binance.

Ethereum’s whale transfer activity increased significantly during the last few weeks amid volatility in the world’s second most valuable digital currency. Since June 2021, ETH’s supply on prominent cryptocurrency exchanges has been plunging.

“In spite of Ethereum’s price, holders of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency are moving assets away from exchanges for safekeeping. Our Exchange Flow Balance metric shows that July’s 1st week had the largest amount of ETH moving off exchanges since April 2017,” the crypto analytics firm, Santiment mentioned recently.

In terms of price, ETH has seen consistent growth since the start of July 2021. After touching an all-time high of over $4,300 on 12 May, ETH declined gradually and reached a low of nearly $1,700 on 22 June. However, Ethereum’s price has recovered substantially during the last few weeks amid a surge in demand from retail and institutional investors.

Ethereum 2.0

Development regarding Ethereum’s network upgrade is one of the major reasons behind ETH’s recent price jump. Additionally, the ETH community is supporting the upcoming network upgrade. According to the latest data published by Etherscan, the deposit contract of ETH 2.0 now has more than 6.2 million Ethereum with a total value of approximately $13.5 billion.

In a recent research note, Goldman Sachs, the US-based investment banking giant, said that Ethereum is a strong contender to overtake Bitcoin as the world’s most valuable digital currency. Furthermore, the bank highlighted the growing popularity of ETH among institutional investors.