Ether extended its two-week rally on Thursday, touching an intraday high just shy of $2,900 after climbing from around $2,660 the previous day. The move, which brought the token to its strongest level since March, coincided with a flurry of large on-chain transactions that suggest sizable investors are moving coins into long-term storage. Blockchain-analysis firm Lookonchain flagged several concentrated withdrawals: Abraxas Capital moved 29,741 ETH valued at about $81 million off Binance and Kraken in the past 12 hours, while two newly created wallets pulled a combined 58,000-plus ETH—worth more than $160 million—from Kraken alone. A separate address spent $25 million in Tether to purchase 9,188 ETH at an average price of $2,721, reinforcing the bid from so-called whales. Corporate demand also picked up. Nasdaq-listed SharpLink Gaming disclosed the purchase of an additional 5,000 ETH, taking its total holdings to roughly $580 million, or close to 200,000 coins, according to Arkham data cited by CoinPost. The Minneapolis-based sports-betting affiliate marketer has been reallocating its treasury into Ether since early June and stakes most of the tokens through Liquid Collective and Figment. The rapid price advance triggered a wave of derivatives-market pain for bearish investors. A trader identified by the wallet 0xCB92 saw a short position of 50,000 ETH swing from more than $26 million in unrealised profit to a loss of about $716,000 after a stop-loss was hit. Another speculator, known as @qwatio, lost more than $16 million in a series of liquidations across Bitcoin and Ether shorts. Separately, 800 Bitcoin—worth roughly $89 million—were sent to Kraken, highlighting broader positioning shifts across crypto markets.