An Ether whale who had held 10,000 Ether for the last 900 days has sold their entire stash and missed out on a peak profit of $27.6 million when the cryptocurrency was worth over $4,000. 

The whale initially bought a total of 10,000 Ether (ETH) across two transactions in October and November 2022 for $13 million at the time for an average price of $1,295 per token, blockchain analytics service Lookonchain said in an April 8 X post.

“He didn’t sell when Ether broke through $4,000. But today, he exited with a $2.75 million profit. The profit at the peak was $27.6 million,” Lookonchain said.

Source: Lookonchain 

The whale sold when Ether was around $1,578, according to Lookonchain. Within the period that the whale wallet was holding its stack, Ether hit a high of $4,015 on Dec. 9, CoinGecko data shows. 

Ether is sitting at around $1,426, down 24% over the last seven days amid a broader market sell-off sparked by the Trump administration’s sweeping global tariffs.

ETH hit its all-time high of $4,878 on Nov. 10, 2021, about a year before the whale’s first purchase.

Trump’s World Liberty Financial sells part of ETH stash 

In a separate April 9 post to X, Lookonchain said the Donald Trump-backed crypto project, World Liberty Financial (WLF), might have also sold some of its Ether stash at a loss. 

“A wallet possibly linked to World Liberty sold 5,471 ETH ($8.01M) at $1,465,” Lookonchain wrote.

Source: Lookonchain

Before the supposed sale, Lookonchain said World Liberty Financial had a stash of 67,498 Ether, which it bought at an average price of $3,259.

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Two other whales have also made big moves amid a market bloodbath that has seen some traders buying the dip. 

On April 7, an unidentified crypto whale had to inject 10,000 Ether— worth more than $14.5 million, to save their position of 220,000 Ether worth more than $300 million from liquidation amid the market slump. 

Another whale wasn’t as lucky, losing 67,570 Ether on April 6, worth around $106 million, when their significant position on decentralized finance lending platform Sky was liquidated. 

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The lingering fears triggered by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs have analysts increasingly convinced that Bitcoin is now more likely than ever to challenge the US dollar in the years ahead.

“Higher chance Bitcoin survives over the dollar in our lifetime after today,” Bitwise Invest head of alpha strategies Jeff Parks said in an April 9 X post.

Investors will be left with no other option but Bitcoin, says crypto exec

“First time the thought hit me and didn’t feel like theory but an actual truth to grapple with,” Parks added. 

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley shared a similar view, noting that with trust in the US dollar waning and other foreign currencies seen as “even weaker,” investors are left with fewer choices. 

He argued that gold, typically seen as a safe harbor amid uncertainty, also has drawbacks around shipping and storage and implied that Bitcoin may be the only option left. “You wind up buying Bitcoin,” Horsley said.

Source: Michael Saylor

The US Dollar Index — which tracks its strength against a basket of major currencies —  is trading at 102.193, down 5.84% since Jan. 1, according to TradingView. However, Wall Street analysts were mistaken in thinking that the tariffs would bolster the US dollar, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries, which took effect on April 5. Harsher reciprocal tariffs on trading partners with which the US has the largest trade deficits then kicked in on April 9.

Uncertainty around the tariffs and fears of a broader recession have been major catalysts for a wide traditional and crypto market decline.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $76,301, down 18.37% since Jan. 1, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin author Saifedean Ammous said in an April 8 X post that America’s issue isn’t with one specific country’s deficit but with aggregate deficits worldwide due to having a “fiat money printer.”

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“An ever-increasing number of Americans can live off the money printer as long as the rest of the world is using the dollar,” Ammous said.

He argued that the real solution is to stop printing “fake money” and move to a hard store of value, naming Bitcoin or gold as examples.

“Another way to solve this problem would be for the world to move to a hard money standard and stop using America’s shitcoin, and give Trump the trade surpluses he thinks he wants.”

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This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has warned that crypto will increasingly threaten traditional financial markets’ stability as the industry grows and becomes more entwined with traditional finance players.

“We cannot rule out that future sharp drops in crypto prices could have knock-on effects on our financial system,” ESMA’s executive director Natasha Cazenave said in an April 8 statement to the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.

Cazenave noted, however, that crypto currently only accounts for 1% of global financial assets and is not yet significant enough to cause major “spillover effects” into traditional financial markets.

She warned that interconnections between crypto and traditional markets are rapidly growing — particularly in the more crypto-friendly US — and called for closer monitoring.

“Crypto-assets markets evolve quickly, in an often unpredictable manner, and we need to keep a close eye on these developments,” Cazenave said, adding:

“Turmoil, even in small markets, can originate or catalyze broader stability issues in our financial system.”

Cazenave’s concerns ranged from spot crypto exchange-traded funds and stablecoin use to hacks, scams and scandals — highlighting the recent $1.4 billion Bybit exploit and FTX’s collapse in November 2022.

Today in the ECON Committee, the role of crypto assets in relation to financial market stability was discussed. The European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) were present.

I raised a critical question about the digital euro.… pic.twitter.com/KST7FRBhFF

— Engin Eroglu (@EnginEroglu_FW) April 8, 2025

The European Union has already implemented several measures to safeguard against crypto risks, most notably the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation that was rolled out last year.

While Cazenave said MiCA marked a “breakthrough” for crypto regulation, she added that there is “no such thing as a safe crypto-asset” and that more rules may need to be implemented to mitigate future risks.

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Her comments come as both crypto and the stock markets have experienced double-digit falls over the last few weeks as the Trump administration continues to follow through on its tariff plans.

Europe lags US in crypto adoption

While crypto adoption has accelerated in the US, Cazenave noted that over 95% of European banks remain on the sidelines, with no involvement in crypto-related activities.

However, retail participation is on the rise, with an estimated 10% to 20% of European investors having crypto exposure, which is in line with growing global interest, Cazenave said.

Most reports measuring US crypto adoption suggest that the range of adoption is between 15% and 28% of the population.

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