[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] An anonymous investor believed to be a bitcoin whale bought 14,341 ethereum after selling 410.14 bitcoin.

U.Today, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Oct. 12 local time that the investor sold about $34.16 million worth of bitcoin on the decentralised trading protocol Hyperliquid, then bought about $36.14 million worth of ethereum through decentralised exchanges (DEXs).

The transaction took place as ethereum attempted a short-term rebound. At the time, ethereum was trading around $2,553, up about 1.85 percent over 24 hours, outpacing bitcoin's gain of 0.93 percent. The broader crypto market later turned lower, and ethereum is now trading at $2,477, down about 1.83 percent from 24 hours earlier.

On-chain flows showed tokenised bitcoin known as 'UBTC' moved several times from related addresses on Hyperunit. One address also received 874,576 USDC via Hyperliquid's Bridge2 contract. Ethereum then flowed in through multiple decentralised trading routes.

Some addresses received 865.07 ETH, worth about $2.2 million, from Uniswap's V2DutchOrderReactor contract. Another wallet address received 827.23 ETH, worth about $2.1 million, from the same contract. The purchases did not occur in a single transaction and appear to have been executed in a distributed manner via multiple routes.

The market is viewing the trade alongside bullish momentum in the ethereum derivatives market. CoinGlass data showed ethereum futures trading volume over the past 24 hours at about $23.15 billion, far above spot trading volume of $1.54 billion. Open interest was estimated at about $32.06 billion. That indicates large leveraged position exposure.

Liquidation data also showed the short-term direction of supply and demand. Ethereum futures liquidations over the past 24 hours totalled about $48.12 million. Of that, short liquidations were $38.11 million, far exceeding long liquidations of $10.0 million. With more funds betting on a decline being closed out, upward pressure strengthened in the short term.

The whale buying is drawing attention because it came as both spot price moves and derivatives indicators tilted toward ethereum. The investor's identity and reasons for buying have not been disclosed, and ethereum's price remains in a weak zone over the past 7 days. The market is watching whether the large-scale accumulation will be limited to a short-term rebound or lead to additional inflows.

A mysterious whale is selling $BTC and buying $ETH! The whale sold 410.14 $BTC ($34.16M) on #Hyperliquid, then bought 14,341 $ETH ($36.14M) on DEXs. https://t.co/ZeoRQN9VlH https://t.co/r5hMRbQs7z