Early Ethereum ICO buyer extends selling streak

An early buyer from the Ethereum ICO is extending the selling streak. Another 6K Ethereum (ETH) moved to exchanges, extending the overall selling pressure for the token. 

The Ethereum (ETH) whale, who bought at ICO prices, has sent another tranche of tokens to exchanges. The buyer placed three tranches of 12,010 ETH, 19,000 ETH, and the latest transaction of 6,000 ETH. 

The total ETH holdings belong to a wallet tagged ‘active DEX trader’ by Nansen. After holding for a long time, the wallet divested more than $34M in ETH from an intermediary address. The buyer may have more than 100K ETH remaining in other connected wallets, as some of the assets were moved to intermediary addresses.  

The #Ethereum ICO participant keeps selling $ETH!

He sold another 6,000 $ETH($14.11M) 45 minutes ago and has sold 40,000 $ETH($101M) at an average price of $2,525 since Sept 22!

He still holds 99.5K $ETH($238M).https://t.co/NA6nFmFsTL pic.twitter.com/UKfXPuCaZF

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) October 4, 2024

The whale has not yet been identified, as most of the early Ethereum ICO buyers remain anonymous. The Ethereum ICO used payments in Bitcoin (BTC) to onboard its first investors. With more than 100K ETH remaining, the ICO buyer has the size of a potential VC backer, liquidity provider, or another type of ecosystem participant. Even the current share sold is larger than some of the recent IDO sales or other fundraising events. 

The recent selling put some pressure on the market price of ETH, which has struggled to remain above the $2,500 range. ETH slid to $2,433.46 in the past week, and for now, it is bound in a range. 

In the past day, other whale-sized transactions were sent to exchanges or to maker makers like Cumberland. When it comes to sentiment, early buyers and the Ethereum Foundation are more influential in setting the mood. Sentiment shifts quickly for ETH, and the most recent downturn caused bearish moods in both smart money and crowd money. 

ETH currently sees bigger exchange outflows, signaling renewed accumulation. Despite this, there are always whales or short-term traders willing to cash out through spot exchanges. 

Ethereum backers included top VC firms

The average sale price for the share was $2,525 per ETH, yielding average ICO returns of 1,562,478%. The Ethereum public sale distributed 60M tokens, of which 83.47% went to investors, and 16.53% was reserved for the founders and project reserves. 

The Ethereum ICO attracted a total of 28 VC backers, including the biggest Tier 1 funds like Pantera Capital, a16z, Paradigm, Jump Capital, and more. The recent whale seller has not been identified with one of those VC funds. Some of the guesses on the identity of the seller include the Ethereum Foundation, which has also been divesting ETH near local tops. 

However, the Ethereum Foundation has a different way of trading, resorting to DEX swaps and using DAI tokens. Vitalik Buterin also performs decentralized swaps, often through CoW Protocol. The initial allocation of the Foundation and the founders has been used to grow the Ethereum ecosystem and invest in L2. 

ETH aims to rebuild open interest

After liquidations at the beginning of October, ETH has to rebuild open interest. In the past week, open interest slid from $8.9B to $8.1B. After the early October correction, leveraged positions shifted to predominantly short, from a dominance of long positions. 

The latest price moves were partially caused by attacking the long positions. BTC price fluctuations also affected Ethereum (ETH). Liquidations have now switched to predominantly long positions, though not creating a significant short squeeze. ETH sentiment remains volatile, with buying and selling pressures often switching in a short time frame. The Ethereum index moved to ‘greed’ in the short term, despite the long-term sideways trading trend.

ETH has been at a crossroads for months, extending its accumulation phase and sideways trading. In the coming months, there are conflicting predictions on whether ETH is preparing for a breakout, or for an extended slide with selling pressure. 

Selling pressure also comes from Grayscale’s ETHE fund, with the latest sale of more than 6K ETH. The ETH market is liquid enough, with more than $15B in daily volumes. However, ETH remains at risk of losing its appeal as sound money. 

On the positive side, Ethereum now locks in more than $56B in its various DeFi protocols. Beacon chain staking, liquid staking, lending, and DEX pools, as well as WETH, are still keeping a large percentage of the coins off the market. 

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva