An unidentified entity has been accumulating Ether (ETH) aggressively over the past week, buying 221,166 ETH as the asset rallied by 21%.
In the past 24 hours alone, the “mysterious institution” bought $212 million of Ether, according to data analytics platform Lookonchain.
The whale tracker said the entity is using six different wallets to store its Ether, which it acquired from Galaxy Digital, FalconX and BitGo. The wallet with the most Ether has $181 million worth, while the wallet with the least Ether has $128 million worth.
The buying comes as Ether addresses with over 10,000 ETH in holdings reached 868,886 on Saturday, the highest it’s been in a year, according to Glassnode.
Ethereum market cap overtakes Mastercard
It came as Ethereum’s market capitalization soared to $523 billion on Monday, boosted by a 21% rally in Ether over the past seven days to cross the $4,000 milestone. It was trading at $4,332 at publication.
Ether’s market cap overtook payments giant Mastercard, which currently has a market capitalization of $519 billion, according to CompaniesMarketCap.
More than 304,000 ETH, worth over $1.3 billion, was added by publicly traded companies that have Ether treasuries in the past week, CoinGecko reported on Saturday.
BitMine Immersion Technologies bought the lion’s share of ETH, as the company bought more than 208,000 ETH, worth more than $900 million, in the past week, which was followed by SharpLink Gaming buying $303 million worth of Ether.
Analysts bullish on ETH’s price action
Technical analysts have also turned bullish on Ether, with some predicting that the asset might reach as high as the $20,000 mark for the first time in the coming months.
Analyst Nilesh Verma said that ETH can hit the $20,000 milestone in the next six to eight months based on historical price fractals.
Related: Vitalik Buterin reclaims ‘onchain billionaire’ crown as Ether tops $4.2K
Meanwhile, Merlijn The Trader, a technical analyst, predicted that the asset might surpass $20,000 and may even go beyond that mark.
On the flip side, some industry experts are cautioning investors.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin supported companies that are buying Ether to hold in their respective treasuries; however, he cautioned that it should not turn into an “overleveraged game,” which could lead to the downfall of the asset.
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