Ongoing sell-offs may threaten retail investor confidence and market stability.
The price of Ethereum (ETH) has surged by over 2% in the last 24 hours, continuing the uptrend it began six days ago. However, some whale wallets are exiting the bull trend. According to on-chain analytics firm Spot On Chain, an ETH ICO participant and a wallet linked to Genesis have both moved a combined 8,510 ETH, which is around $21.9 million, to a centralized exchange.
Two major market players, including an Ethereum ICO participant and Genesis Trading's bankruptcy wallet, deposited 8,510 $ETH ($21.9M) to CEXs in the last 9 hours!
👉 #Ethereum ICO whale “0xb8c” sent 3,510 $ETH ($9.04M) to #Kraken again after 3 months. This whale still holds… https://t.co/83vDcHO6Qz pic.twitter.com/bRpdgKGVuH
— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) September 23, 2024
The analytics firm revealed on their X page that an Ethereum ICO whale with the address “0xb8c” has made another transfer to crypto exchange Kraken after a three-month pause. The individual moved 3,510 ETH, which is worth around $9.04 million. While this is a substantial sell-off, it was revealed that the user is still holding 136,000 ETH, which is about $358 million across eight wallets.
A wallet connected to the cryptocurrency lending company Genesis has also transferred 5,000 ETH, or around $12.9 million, to FalconX. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and will have to repay its investors a total of $3 billion. The sell-off by Genesis suggests that the firm is paying its creditors.
The whale transfer continues as the Ethereum Foundation, an organization created to support Ethereum, sold 100 ETH, which is worth around $264,000, making it another sale in less than 3 days.
The sell-off brings the total ETH sale of the organization since January 2024 to 3,566 ETH, roughly $9.94 million. Lookonchain revealed that the foundation has sold ETH at an average price of $2,791, averaging one sale every 11 days and also averaging 151 ETH, around $421,000 for each sale.
Implications for the Ethereum Ecosystem
Despite these large ETH moves by some of the top participants, the effect is yet to be fully realized in the ETH market as the price of the coin has continued on an uptrend it has been for the past six days, having only retraced by 4% from $2,632 to $2,519 on Sunday. The coin has, however, picked itself up, hitting more than 2% in the last 24 hours.
The transfers by the ICO whale and Ethereum Foundation could be seen as an approach to taking profits after waiting for years. This is similar to another whale move revealed by Lookonchain, who bought ETH during the bear market and sold it during the bull market, making a total of $171.72 million.
According to the on-chain analytics firm, the smart investor bought 96,639 ETH, or $151.42 million, from Coinbase at the rate of $1,567 on September 3 and September 4, 2022. Later, this whale deposited 70,000 ETH, valued at $214.34 million at $3,062, into the Kraken exchange on March 6, 2023, which is a move to take advantage of rising prices.
Also, the sale by Genesis could be part of the means by which the firm wants to repay its creditors. While these transactions could be legitimate, a continuous sell-off could raise concerns among retail investors, leading to panic selling and ultimately bringing the price of the coin down.
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