An Ethereum whale, a term used for a large investor, dumped over 10,000 coins into the market this Tuesday (9). According to information from Lookonchain, this is the third time the investor has sold their ethers in moments of panic.

Despite this, the sales resulted in profits. This is because the investor bought Ethereum when the coin was valued at only $8 at the beginning of 2016.

In crisis during the last bullish cycle, losing ground to rivals like Solana, Ethereum may now lose its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency in the market. In third place is the stablecoin Tether (USDT), which gained strength after the American elections.

Veteran investor dumps thousands of Ethereum into the market

Trading at $1,500, Ethereum has already lost 16.4% since the beginning of the month. The losses reach 54.3% compared to the beginning of January, making it one of the worst market performances.

With the recent trade war in the U.S., ETH fell below $1,400 this Tuesday (8). The panic moment caused an old whale to sell over 10,000 ETH, zeroing their portfolio.

"A veteran of Ethereum sold 10,702 $ETH ($16.86 million/99.3 million) at $1,576, after 2 years of inactivity."

$ETH

"He received the $ETH already in 2016, when the price was only $8," continued Lookonchain, highlighting that "interestingly, he never sold when $ETH was above $4,000 — but always chose to sell during major declines."

On-chain data shows that the transactions were made through Uniswap, a decentralized exchange. The ethers were converted into the stablecoin USDC.

In the comments, other investors noted that even large supporters of Ethereum are capitulating, meaning they are giving up on the project.

Ethereum may lose its position as the 'silver' of cryptocurrencies

Launched in 2015, Ethereum became the second-largest cryptocurrency in the market in 2017, losing the position to Ripple (XRP) in 2018 and 2019, before consolidating as the 'silver' of cryptocurrencies for the last 5 consecutive years.

At times, some investors believed that Ethereum would surpass Bitcoin. However, due to its current crisis, Ethereum is about to lose its position to Tether (USDT).

For this to happen, it is enough for ETH to drop another 20% and the market value of USDT to remain static. Currently, the two cryptocurrencies are valued at $183 billion and $144 billion, respectively.