Trend Research Scoops Up $63 Million in ETH, Borrows $40M to Buy More

Trend Research withdrew 20,850 ETH, worth $63.28 million, from Binance on Sunday and immediately borrowed an additional $40 million in USDT through the lending protocol Aave, which indicates continued aggressive accumulation as Ethereum trades near $3,000.

The institutional arm of Easy Come Easy Go now controls 601,074 ETH valued at $1.83 billion across five addresses, having borrowed a total of $958 million in stablecoins to fund purchases at an average price of roughly $3,265 per token, according to on-chain analyst Ai Auntie.

The fresh buying comes as Ethereum’s staking dynamics flip decisively bullish for the first time in six months.

Entry queues have surged to 745,619 ETH with a 13-day wait, while exit queues have dropped to 360,518 ETH and could reach zero by early January, potentially easing persistent sell pressure that has weighed on the token throughout 2024.

BitMine Leads Corporate Accumulation Wave

Tom Lee’s BitMine Immersion Technologies staked another $780 million in ETH on Sunday, bringing its two-day total to $1 billion and solidifying its position as the world’s largest Ethereum treasury holder with 4.07 million ETH.

The company disclosed on December 21 that it now controls 3.37% of Ethereum’s total supply, pushing toward its stated “Alchemy of 5%” target while maintaining $1 billion in cash and 193 Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

BitMine’s BMNR stock has become the 66th most traded equity in the United States, with an average daily volume of $1.7 billion over the past five days, ranking just behind Wells Fargo and ahead of Chevron.

The aggressive staking activity follows a period of sustained accumulation that saw BitMine add 98,852 ETH in the past week alone, surpassing the 4 million ETH threshold just 5.5 months after initiating its strategy.

As covered by Cryptonews recently, DeFi analyst Abdul noted that roughly 70% of the 5% of Ethereum supply that changed hands since July was absorbed by BitMine, offsetting a large September unstaking event by staking provider Kiln following an exploit involving SwissBorg.

Institutional Outlook Points to Tenfold TVL Growth

Joseph Chalom, co-CEO of Sharplink Gaming, the second-largest public Ethereum treasury company with 797,704 ETH, forecast that Ethereum’s total value locked could rise tenfold in 2026 as stablecoin issuance targets $500 billion and tokenized real-world assets reach $300 billion.

Chalom predicted that sovereign wealth funds would increase their Ethereum holdings and tokenization exposure by 5 to 10 times over the next year, driven by competitive pressure among large allocators as remaining sidelined becomes less viable.

“With more than half of all stablecoin activity currently taking place on Ethereum, sustained issuance and transaction growth could materially lift the network’s TVL,” he said.

Ethereum’s TVL currently stands at around $68.2 billion according to DeFiLlama, while the token trades near $3,000 after climbing roughly 6% over the past month.

On the technical level, Analyst Ted Pillows noted that a daily close above $3,000 could push Ethereum toward the $3,200-$3,400 range, while a failure to reclaim this zone would reverse the entire pump.

ETH recovery is already proving itself against short traders. According to the data from LookOnChain, a “smart trader” pension-usdt.eth, who has achieved an 83% win rate across 70 trades and $21.84 million in total profits, recently closed an ETH short position for a $3.4 million loss after initially opening a 3× short on 20,000 ETH worth $58.44 million.

Despite improving adoption trends, Ether remains down more than 12% over the past 12 months, prompting some crypto analysts to believe the token is unlikely to reach new highs in the near term due to broader market conditions tied to Bitcoin’s cycle.

Meanwhile, the Peter Thiel-backed ETHZilla has begun unwinding its aggressive Ethereum treasury strategy, selling $74.5 million in ETH in a clear shift away from a pure crypto accumulation model.