Large holders of the Ethereum token are beginning to increase their exposure amid new developments in the token’s ecosystem. This comes ahead of the ETH network, ERC-8004 upgrade this week.
Whales Load up Ethereum Tokens Ahead of Major Update
In a series of transactions over the past week, whales of the altcoin have continued to expand their holdings ahead of the token’s network update this week. Lookonchain flagged a recent purchase of $56.13 million by an OTC whale. They also noted that the past week has seen the entity accumulate a total of $203.6 million in tokens.
In addition, Onchain Lens reported that a new entity has acquired 61,ooo ETH tokens, valued at $171.15 million.
It is important to note that institutions are also accumulating the Ethereum token. On Monday, World Liberty Financial sold its WBTC assets in ETH. The firm bought about 2,864 tokens worth $8 million.
Also, BitMine has continued to increase its holdings in the token. TomLee’s firm confirmed that they made ETH purchases worth aroound $115 million over the previous week. Notably, the ETH treasury firm has staked about 55% of its total portfolio.
Tom Lee(@fundstrat)’s #Bitmine staked another 113,280 $ETH($340.68M) an hour ago.
In total, #Bitmine has now staked 2,332,051 $ETH($7B), 55% of its total holdings.https://t.co/P684j5YQaG pic.twitter.com/Q4VDKaxmFp
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) January 28, 2026
Data from blockchain firm CryptoQuant also tells the same story. It was highlighted that in the past week, Ethereum whales accumulated more than 350,000 tokens in a single day. An analyst in the firm shared that this level of activity could only mean that the entities are waiting for a price jump.
ERC-8004 to Go Live on Mainnet This Week
The team announced in a recent post on X that the ERC-8004 upgrade would go live on its mainnet later this week. Some community members have even suggested it could launch as soon as Thursday, January 29.
ERC-8004 is going live on mainnet soon.
By enabling discovery and portable reputation, ERC-8004 allows AI agents to interact across organizations ensuring credibility travels everywhere.
This unlocks a global market where AI services can interoperate without gatekeepers. https://t.co/Yrl0rvnSxj
— Ethereum (@ethereum) January 27, 2026
The new proposal was introduced last year in August and later formally presented in October by members of the ETH Foundation. This update will enable AI agents to interact with different platforms on the Ethereum network. This will allow for a permissionless environment where agents can participate fully.
Its worth mentioning that this update comes right before the highly anticipated Fusaka upgrade of the network. But currently, the ERC-8004 was implemented using on-chain registries. These registries were introduced to give each AI agent a portable identity. The developers shared that this design helps maintain verifiable identities.
However, the new upgrade comes with some security risks. The team shared that it could suffer Sybil attacks. This is when an identity creates multiple fake identities to gain influence.