As the broader cryptocurrency market took a nosedive recently, a mysterious Ethereum whale successfully escaped with $41 million worth of ETH. Days later, the price of ETH dropped, along with BTC and other cryptocurrencies. Did this whale know something the rest of the market didn’t?
Ethereum Whale Sells $41M Before Market Crash
In the early hours of August 18, the crypto market saw investors respond SpaceX sells its $373 million Bitcoin holdings, sending Bitcoin down more than 8% in minutes. During this period, the crypto market cap fell to $1.1 trillion, and Ethereum also saw its value fall by almost 6%.
On the chain data provided by Lookonchain reveals that a smart Ethereum whale dumped 22,341 ETH worth $41 million just before August 14. On-chain research shows that the whale moved their ETH holdings to the Binance exchange and then withdrew $41 million worth of Tether USDT.
While this whale still made a $1.7 million loss on the sale, they would have lost at least $5 million on the crash if they hadn’t moved their money.
The whale was very smart and dumped 22,341 $ETH ($41 million) before the market crashed.
Although he lost ~$1.7 million this time, he successfully avoided the market crash.
Maybe he buys $ETH in the future at a lower price.
Follow this clever whale.????https://t.co/S4Wv8XRlhW pic.twitter.com/BcdzdpmbIA
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 18, 2023
Coincidentally, this isn’t the first time this trader has made headlines. This savvy Ethereum whale has previously shown signs of being able to predict market movements and has achieved a 100% win rate in recent months.
The whale benefited from the saga of SEC and Spot Bitcoin ETFs. When ETH plummeted in response to news that the SEC was rejecting spot Bitcoin applications from BlackRock and other investment firms, this whale saw it as an opportunity to buy the dip on June 30.
She purchased 8,188 ETH worth $15.23 million at $1,860 per ETH, and ETH would later rise to $1948.60 in the hours after.
A smart whale deposited 25K $ETH ($47.24 million) to #Binance and withdrew 15.9 million $USDT 12 hours ago.
The whale is very good at buying $ETH at low prices and sell at high prices to make a profit.
He has a 100% win rate when trading $ETH in the past 2 months.https://t.co/dT9p6jeCtr pic.twitter.com/pTuJAwL81O
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) June 28, 2023
Do whales have precognition?
While we’re not sure whether whales have access to inside information, their actions are worth paying attention to. It could be that this whale knew something was going to cause a price crash or just made the right trading decision at the right time.
Nevertheless, whale movements can signal future price action due to the sheer size of their positions. So by closely monitoring the on-chain activity of major holders, investors can gain useful insights.
The market has yet to recover from the recent dip. At the time of writing, ETH is down 1.80% in the last 24 hours and 10.19% in the space of 7 days. Bitcoin and XRP are also down 11.87% and 19.87% respectively in a 7-day time frame.
ETH price jumps to $1,681 | Source: ETHUSD on Tradingview.com
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com