27 January 2026
The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum, appears to have quietly crossed an important critical threshold that has historically signaled major price expansions. While the Ethereum price action may still appear calm on the surface, underlying market structure and flow dynamics suggest a meaningful shift is underway. This type of transition typically occurs when accumulation replaces distribution, volatility compresses, and smart money positions ahead of broader market recognition.
A Silent Shift That Usually Comes Before Violent Expansion
Ethereum just crossed a quiet but massive threshold. Trader and investor Shuarix has mentioned on X that Zama has gone live with the first fully encrypted Initial Coin Offering (ICO) ever executed on the ETH mainnet, moving a confidential USDT and running a sealed-bid Dutch auction entirely on encrypted data.
In just 3 days, more than $118 million was committed, over $100 million was shielded, and the auction was 218% oversubscribed with more than 11,000 verified bidders. At peak activity, the Zama application became the most-used app on ETH, surpassing both USDT and Uniswap during the event, with zero downtime and full ETH-level throughout.
Crypto analyst Milk Road revealed that BitMine Immersion Technologies has made a large purchase of 40,302 ETH in a single move, which brings their total stack holdings to a massive 4,243,338 ETH, worth over $12.3 billion at the current price. In perspective, the company now controls 3.52% of the entire ETH circulating supply, and they’re not just letting it sit idle.
According to Milk Road, BitMine has over 2 million ETH tokens already staked, generating $180 million in annualized rewards. This means the company is not just playing the buy-and-hold game, but compounding its position at scale, which is all well and good for BitMine. Meanwhile, this sustained buying pressure will help create a price floor for the long-term ETH holders.
Furthermore, this move is the type of institutional accumulation that will keep ETH moving inside its ascending channel. Thus, this will help to pull the price back into that channel after the macro shocks temporarily push it out. “Below is the 2025 tariff shock. While the headlines try to muddy your view of things, this chart will tell the real story,” Milk Road noted.
Accumulation Continues Despite Price Being Near Entry Levels
The realized price of the Ethereum accumulation address is acting as a major support level. A crypto investor known as CW has also pointed out that ETH has only reached this realized price once in history, which is very similar to the current price range.
However, the whale’s purchase price for ETH is not significantly different from the current price. Despite that, their ETH accumulation is increasing, indicating that whales still view the current price as fair value. This shows that they are preparing for an upward trend.