Ethereum climbed past $2,600 on Friday, its second such move this month, as Santiment Intelligence data pointed to returning whale activity and a record count of non-empty wallets. ETH staked has grown past 40 million tokens and DeFi's total value locked stands near $50 billion, even as network fees keep falling.
Ether broke above $2,600 on Friday, the second time it has done so this month. Santiment Intelligence tied the move to renewed whale activity and a record wallet count. The report also flagged continued momentum around staking.
Large transfers alone do not confirm accumulation, since big transactions can reflect either buying or selling. Still, the actual price action of the asset leaned toward purchases.
Wallet Count Hits New Record
The number of non-empty Ethereum wallets climbed to a new record of over 207 million, according to the data. The figure suggests ETH ownership keeps spreading even after months of comparatively weak price action. At the same time, a large share of Ethereum's circulating supply stays committed to the network rather than sitting idle.
Bitmine is among the entities actively staking large token holdings, and the amount of ETH staked has grown to over 40 million. Ethereum also keeps the lead spot for total value locked in DeFi at roughly $50 billion.
This backdrop underlines a broader point behind the latest recovery, which took the largest altcoin from under $2,400 a few days ago to over $2,600 now. Ethereum's investment case rests on more than short-term price speculation, since ETH stays embedded in staking, stablecoins, lending, and decentralized exchanges.
Network use has also gotten cheaper: the average transaction fee has fallen to under $0.1, down more than 85% from this year's peak of $0.72 in April.
Can ETH Keep Pumping?
The improving on-chain picture arrives as Ethereum approaches another key technical level. Analyst Ted Pillows has flagged the current resistance zone as a major hurdle on ETH's path to recovery, and a sustained breakout could open the door to new local peaks.
Source: CryptoPotato
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
