Fifth largest crypto-whale exchanges ETH for BTC

The ETH/BTC exchange rate is reaching a new low in this cycle, and a major crypto player seems to be losing faith in Ethereum. What's behind it.

The fifth richest known crypto investor, James Fickel, appears to be his Ethereum-investment to have reconsidered. According to on-chain data of Lookonchain, the wealthy investor on Aug. 10 partially closed his multi-million dollar long position in ETH and exchanged it for Bitcoin.

Records show that on January 10 of this year, Fickel had deposited 3,061 Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) on the lending platform Aave and redeemed it for 56,445 ETH. With this, he effectively bet $172 million on a stronger performance of Ethereum against Bitcoin. On Aug. 10, he then exchanged back 10,000 ETH, resulting in a loss of more than 20% at the current ETH/BTC exchange rate of 0.04258.

According to data from Arkham Intelligence with $446 million, Fickel is among the top 5 well-known crypto whales. His portfolio consists mainly of ETH strike tokens such as AETHWSTETH or wETH, as well as USDC and Optimism (OP).

Outside of his crypto activities, James Fickel is the founder of the Amaranth Foundation. His foundation conducts research and funds projects in life extension and neuroscience, exploring solutions to aging.

Although some interpret his recent trading activity as a form of capitulation given ETH's weak performance this year, the decision could also be motivated differently. For example, Fickel had expressed skepticism on X about new security procedures surrounding wBTC and may have tried to avoid potential risks.

However, since his crypto portfolio is still more than 80% ETH-based assets, it is doubtful that he has really lost faith in Ethereum.