Santiment data shows Mantle leading a broad surge in whale transaction activity this week, with nine other assets including MakerDAO, Fetch.ai, and Pepe all recording significant week-over-week increases in transactions above $100,000.
What the Data Measures
The Santiment screener tracks projects with market caps above $500 million and ranks them by the percentage increase in transactions valued at $100,000 or more compared to the prior week. The metric captures where large holders are actively moving capital, not where price is going. Whale transaction volume rising does not distinguish between buying and selling. It identifies where significant positioning activity is occurring.
The Top Ten This Week
Mantle sits at the top of the list by a wide margin. MNT recorded a 600% week-over-week increase in whale transactions, with a current price of $0.773 and a market cap of $2.53 billion. That is seven times the whale transaction volume of the prior week. The price chart visible in the screener shows a downward sloping 7-day price trend with a 6.99% decline over 24 hours. Whale activity is accelerating into price weakness, not chasing strength.
DAI on BNB Chain ranks second with a 340% increase. As a stablecoin trading at $0.9999, the whale transaction surge here reflects large-scale capital movement rather than speculative positioning. Volume reached $253.34 million over the period, the highest of any asset in the top ten. MKR, MakerDAO’s governance token, sits third at 200% with a price of $1,762.86 and a market cap of $1.61 billion, despite a 7.42% 24-hour decline.
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, trading as FET, ranks fourth at 178%. Current price is $0.223 with a market cap of $504.71 million, placing it near the bottom of the eligible universe by size. The 5.32% 24-hour decline mirrors the broader market selloff visible across most assets in the list. Rain Protocol ranks fifth at exactly 100%, with a price of $0.00893 and a $4.27 billion market cap.
The bottom half of the list shows Aster at 89%, USDD on Ethereum at 82%, Pepe at 61%, USDT on Optimism at 58%, and USDC on BNB Chain at 57%. The stablecoin entries, DAI on BNB, USDD on Ethereum, USDT on Optimism, and USDC on BNB, together accounting for four of the ten slots, suggest a significant portion of this week’s whale activity involves dollar-denominated capital repositioning rather than directional crypto bets.
What the Pattern Suggests
Four stablecoins in the top ten during a week when Bitcoin dropped below $70,000 is not a coincidence. Large holders moving stablecoin volume at this scale is consistent with capital rotating out of risk assets and into dollar-equivalent positions, or with institutional participants staging capital for potential re-entry.
The non-stablecoin assets showing the largest whale transaction increases, Mantle, MKR, FET, and Pepe, all recorded price declines over the same 7-day window. Whale transactions rising while price falls is a pattern consistent with accumulation, but it is not confirmation of it. Large transactions into declining assets can reflect both buying and distribution depending on the direction of the flows, which this metric does not specify.
The volume is moving. Where it ends up is the question the data does not answer.
