Who's the mysterious institution quietly building a 171K Ethereum reserve?

Ethereum reserves are turning into a hot commodity as more companies set out plans to buy ETH. However, in the past week, a mysterious entity has built a potential treasury of over 171K ETH. 

The anonymous entity is buying up ETH from multiple sources, building a reserve of 171,015 ETH. On-chain data shows that Ethereum tokens were sent to six newly created wallets, funded by other large-scale trading wallets. 

The funds flowed in multiple transactions, tapping BitGo, FalconX, and Galaxy Digital, suggesting institutional buying. Other anonymous whales often use Binance for large transactions. 

This mysterious institution created a new wallet again, and received 10,396 $ETH($40.6M) from #FalconX in the past 2 hours.

Over the past 4 days, they have created 6 wallets and accumulated 171,015 $ETH($667M) from #FalconX, #GalaxyDigital, and #BitGo.https://t.co/uYO6QGhRho pic.twitter.com/FEC4ilwzVo

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 8, 2025

The additional accumulation arrived as Ethereum is attempting yet another breakout. The token broke above the $3,900 level, once again setting expectations for a hike to $4,000 and new all-time highs. ETH has recovered from its image as an inactive chain, instead showing the network is key infrastructure for both native activities and inflows from institutional finance.

The size of the current Ethereum reserves puts the entity among the top 5 entities with strategic ETH reserves, surpassing Coinbase and other earlier holders. The connected wallets are not yet linked to any specific treasury company or high-profile buyer. 

The recent inflows track high-profile purchases by SharpLink Gaming and the Ethereum Machine, as previously reported by Cryptopolitan.

Whales actively move ETH for DeFi, reserve purposes

Whales are highly active on the ETH spot market, with both trading and accumulation for staking. Recently, a whale panic-sold as Ethereum had a short-term setback, later returning to buy at $3,828. 

Overall, ETH is still relatively distributed, with the top 10 whales holding around 12.33M ETH, under 10% of the total supply. In comparison, BlackRock and Strategy already hold over 6% of the BTC supply, with even more locked in top institutional and corporate wallets. 

Ethereum also accumulates by necessity, even when held by retailers or early investors. After a period of usage as a utility coin, ETH is more widely used for staking and liquid staking currently. 

The inflow of ETH into accumulation addresses continues at a historically high pace, with growing demand for DeFi or a reserve for bigger future rallies. 

SharpLink Gaming buys more ETH

SharpLink gaming also added to the ETH treasury rush. In the past day, the company acquired an additional 21,959 ETH, for a total of 543,898 ETH. 

SharpLink remains the second-largest corporate ETH holder, as BitMine has already expanded its treasury to 833.1K ETH. Following the recent purchase, SBET shares recovered near a one-week high of $23.56.

Exact treasuries and wallets may be hard to track, as almost all entities move their funds into liquid staking. Even when staked on the Beacon Chain, the stakes will be split into several tranches of 2,048 ETH. Some large-scale ETH holders also choose third-party liquid staking entities that also work as validators.

After an initial peak of requests to unstake ETH, validators are now returning to the usual balance. Close to 30% of the ETH supply is locked in staking, with additional tokens wrapped in multiple protocols. The increased demand from multiple buyer profiles continues to boost short-term ETH scarcity.

In total, strategic ETH reserves are now above 3M ETH, catching up with near-vertical growth. ETFs still carry around 5.3M ETH, though with a slower pace in the past month.

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