Wintermute Withdraws $7.61m ARB and $2m OP; Signaling Whales Renew Arbitrum Optimism Interest

With Bitcoin and the broader crypto markets retracting their values, whales’ attention has shifted their focus to certain altcoins that are attracting their interest.

Arbitrum (ARB) and Optimism (OP) are currently gaining increased popularity from large holders, according to a crypto analyst commonly recognized as the Data Nerd on the X platform.

Whales accumulating Arbitrum and Optimism

According to data from the crypto on-chain tracker, a whale withdrew 10 million ARB tokens (worth $7.61 million) and 2 million OP coins from Binance today. Luckily, the crypto analyst identified the wallet address belonging to the crypto trading firm Wintermute.

Data showed that the whale now has 17.2 million Arbitrum tokens (worth $13.13 million) and 2.055 million Optimism tokens (valued at $3.86 million) in his wallet.

The action by the trader signals that the interest of ARB and OP has increased recently, with whales accumulating the tokens to reposition their holdings.

As of December 20, whales heightened their buying spree on Arbitrum amid price reduction triggered by the recent action by the Fed in the global markets. On Wednesday, December 18, the financial regulator reduced lending rates but hinted at lesser cuts next year causing risky assets like stocks and digital assets to retract their values.

As a result, savvy traders intensified their purchasing frenzy, with many buying over 40 million Arbitrum tokens over the previous week. Such actions are normally associated with whales who acquire tokens in millions. Meanwhile, big investors have also maintained an accumulation of Optimism. Recently data from Santiment indicates a significant increase of wallet balances possessing at least 10 million OP tokens.

Whales’ activities continue to capture the attention of market participants, as their bold actions occur when most digital assets cooled their trajectories. However, part of the reason for whales reviving their interest in ARB and OP is that these layer-2 scaling solutions provide more affordable gas fees and quicker transactions than Ethereum’s protocol. This makes them appealing to developers and users. Generally, big investors purchasing Arbitrum and Optimism signify their confidence in these assets’ long-term potential.

ARB and OP price updates

Both Optimism and Arbitrum have displayed an extensive downward trend recently. ARB price has been down 20.1% over the last 30 days while OP’s value is down 22.2% over the same period, according to CoinGecko.

Such declines reflect a widespread dwindle of most cryptocurrency prices majorly fueled by the recent Fed’s economic policy updates. Although the central bank diminished lending rates by 0.25%, it hinted at lesser reductions next year, causing depressed investor enthusiasm for markets. The announcement signified that lending rates could stay higher for a lengthy period of time in 2025, affecting the prices of risky assets like stocks and crypto.

Such market activity by the central bank normally leads to the shrinking of the cash flow situation worldwide, leading to borrowing funds becoming more exorbitant (costlier). And eventually deters investors from investing in risky assets like digital currencies.

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