The altcoin market is once again capturing the attention of major players. On-chain data records a sharp surge in large transactions for Lighter (LIT) and Mantle (MNT) tokens, reaching the highest levels in the last six months. This is a signal that cannot be ignored.
According to data from the analytical platform Santiment, the number of LIT transactions exceeding $100,000 soared to 86. This is an absolute six-month high. The surge coincided with a powerful price rally: on Monday, the LIT rate jumped by more than 20%, reaching the $2.6 mark — the highest level since January. Over the week, the asset gained 37.9%.
What is driving Lighter whales?
The reason for the increased interest in Lighter lies in fundamental changes. Last month, the project team revised the tokenomics, launching a burn mechanism that reduces the total supply of LIT. Additionally, new staking conditions were introduced with a 6% annual yield from a pool of 250 million LIT. It is these updates, including improvements to the perp DEX and buyback mechanisms, that have attracted the attention of "whales," who have begun actively accumulating the asset.
Alongside Lighter, a similar surge in activity has been recorded for Mantle. Santiment noted 37 large MNT transactions exceeding $100,000. This interest is directly linked to the growth of the tokenized real-world assets (RWA) segment.
Mantle: Betting on real-world assets
In its first-half report, the Mantle team reported all-time highs in the project's on-chain economy. The total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi segment exceeded a record $1 billion, of which $90 million comes from RWA solutions. The market capitalization of stablecoins on the network reached a new all-time high, hitting $955 million (120% annual growth). The network now supports 155 tokenized stocks and has a treasury of over $1.8 billion.
Nevertheless, the price of the MNT token itself remains under pressure from the broader market. Over the past 24 hours, the asset fell by 2% to $0.431, and over the month it lost about 11%. However, on the weekly timeframe, a slight increase of 1.4% is observed.
My view: The behavior of "whales" is one of the most significant indicators for medium-term traders. The growth in large transactions for LIT and MNT indicates that institutional and experienced market participants see fundamental value in these projects. For Lighter, it's a new tokenomic equation making the asset more deflationary. For Mantle, it's an expansion into the RWA sector, which, in my belief, will become one of the main drivers of the next bull cycle. However, it's worth remembering that high whale activity can be both a harbinger of growth and preparation for distribution. Let's monitor the dynamics.