Ethereum (ETH) surged past the $2,000 mark this week as whale investors poured tens of millions of dollars into fresh accumulation, with on-chain data from Santiment and CryptoQuant showing a shift in market sentiment and the Coinbase Premium Index turning positive for the first time since early Jan. 2026.
What Happened: Whales Load Up on ETH
The broader crypto market extended its midweek rally, and Ethereum climbed roughly 8% over two days. At press time, ETH was trading at $2,054.
Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain tracked several large transactions during the move. Whale address 0xAb59 spent $14.57 million to acquire 7,008 ETH at an average price of $2,079, while a separate address, 0x166f, withdrew 20,000 ETH worth $38.25 million from Binance and Deribit within a two-hour window.
The withdrawal involved five transfers, the largest being 8,000 ETH from a Binance hot wallet. Santiment's data showed that the 30-day Market Value to Realized Value ratio for large-cap cryptocurrencies shifted meaningfully after the rally, suggesting the market is rebalancing after a stretch of undervaluation.
Ethereum's MVRV ratio, which compares market capitalization with realized capitalization to gauge average holder profitability, moved from a strongly undervalued position to a mildly undervalued zone at -5.5%.
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Why It Matters: U.S. Demand Returns
The Ethereum Coinbase Premium Index, which measures the price difference between ETH on Coinbase and Binance, has crossed above zero. Throughout much of Jan. and early Feb. 2026, the index stayed firmly negative, a signal typically associated with weaker buying pressure from U.S.-based investors.
The current positive reading reflects stronger demand from American buyers, including institutional participants.
"Most of the moments when the ETH Coinbase premium turned positive were followed by an upward trend," one analyst wrote. "We've reached a critical turning point."
Derivatives traders have also benefited from the move. Data shared by OnchainLens showed that trader Machi's leveraged 25x long position on ETH swung back into profit, now up more than $760,000. Separately, the whale known as pension-usdt.eth closed both ETH and Bitcoin (BTC) long positions, realizing approximately $1.16 million in gains, while a Matrixport-linked whale turned a $15.5 million loss into more than $2 million in profit.
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