Ethereum whales kept buying this week. A selection of newly created wallets pulled roughly 50,000 ETH off exchanges in under 48 hours.

The move comes as the ETH/BTC ratio jumped 6% in a week, adding fresh weight to the case that altcoin season may be building. ETH traded at $1,917, up 2.22% on the day. Bitcoin sat at $64,554, slightly down on the day, according to BeInCrypto data.

Whales And BitMine Keep Accumulating

On-chain tracker Lookonchain flagged a few large buys this week. One address, from a newly created wallet, 0xf31d, withdrew 8,239 ETH worth $14.5 million from several exchanges. A separate wallet, 0x363A, accumulated 11,843 ETH worth $20.8 million in just three hours.

A few days later, three newly created wallets withdrew a combined 30,000 ETH, worth $57.66 million, from Coinbase Prime.

Institutional buying continued alongside the independent wallets. Tom Lee’s BitMine bought another 6,000 ETH, worth $11.18 million, from FalconX on July 15. The purchase extends Bitmine’s aggressive buying streak toward its long-standing goal of holding 5% of Ethereum’s total supply.

Altcoin Season Index Drops as Ratio Breaks Higher

The renewed accumulation actually lands as the Altcoin Season Index drops. CoinGlass’s version of the index has fallen to 48, down from 58 earlier this week. This sees it fall further below the 75 threshold that would confirm a genuine altcoin season, but bubbling interesting in Ethereum could point towards a move away from BTC.

The ETH/BTC ratio is showing promising growth. The pair traded at 0.02971 on Binance, up 6.14% over the past week and 9.75% over the past month, according to TradingView data. That marks a sharp reversal from the 0.0275 low Wintermute flagged in May.

Ethereum is now gaining ground against Bitcoin on a relative basis. That shift is one of the clearer signals that capital is rotating down the risk curve instead of parking in Bitcoin.

This week’s combination of whale buying and a strengthening ETH/BTC ratio could mark the start of a durable altcoin rotation, or another head fake.

Much depends on the Bitcoin dominance and which direction it heads through the rest of July. It also depends on whether the ETH price can keep pace with the ratio’s gains against Bitcoin.

Source: BeInCrypto