A crypto whale with $11.4 billion in Bitcoin has suddenly unloaded BTC after holding it for years in order to invest in Ethereum (ETH), on-chain data shows.

According to the blockchain tracker Lookonchain, the unknown crypto whale sold off more than $2 billion worth of BTC on decentralized exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid in order to buy nearly 473,000 ETH as well as take out an ETH long bet.

“The Bitcoin OG who received 100,784 BTC ($642 million then, now $11.4 billion) seven years ago is frantically dumping BTC for ETH. In the past five days, they’ve deposited ~22,769 BTC ($2.59 billion) to Hyperliquid for sale, then bought 472,920 ETH ($2.22 billion) spot and opened a 135,265 ETH ($577 million) long.”

Bitcoin is trading for $112,258 at time of writing, down 2% in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Ethereum is trading for $4,615 at time of writing, down 3.9% on the day.

Lookonchain also suggests that the buying activity of deep-pocketed investors is signaling the arrival of the alt season, a phase in the market when altcoins outperform Bitcoin.

Lookonchain spots another crypto whale taking large long bets on alts that include ETH, the utility token of the decentralized open financial system Hyperliquid (HYPE), decentralized oracle network Chainlink (LINK), crypto lending protocol Aave (AAVE) and the native token of decentralized finance protocol and stablecoin issuer Maker (MKR).

“Is altcoin season here? Another whale ‘0x4174’ deposited 5.45 million USDC into Hyperliquid and went long on ETH (20x), BTC (40x), HYPE (10x), LINK (10x), AAVE (10x) and MKR (10x).”

HYPE is trading for $45.80 at time of writing, up 3.7% in the last 24 hours, while LINK is trading for $24.53 at time of writing, down 3.9% on the day.

AAVE is trading for $325 at time of writing, down 7.3% in the last 24 hours, while MKR is trading for $1,491 at time of writing, down 5.5% on the day.

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