The crypto market might be about to experience a further downturn as a recent development suggests an imminent selloff is on the horizon. This comes following the recent market moves by Grayscale, which is believed to be responsible for the recent decline in Bitcoin’s price.
Celsius And FTX Crypto Funds On The Move
On-chain data shows that defunct crypto lender Celsius Network recently transferred 34.08 million MATIC to the crypto exchange Binance. Meanwhile, a wallet address linked to Alameda Research, the sister company of defunct crypto exchange FTX, also recently sent 135 WBTC to Binance, 207 WBTC, and 1150 ETH to Wintermute.
These transactions are more significant, considering that Celsius and FTX are in a bankruptcy liquidation process as they look to repay their customers. As such, transferring these funds to trading platforms like Binance suggests that these tokens could be dumped on the market soon enough.
Celsius, in particular, is known to have been making major moves in the market as of late. NewsBTC had recently reported how Celsisus had transferred $125 million worth of ETH last week to various crypto exchanges, something which could have possibly contributed to recent bloodbaths in the crypto market.
On the other hand, selloffs by Alameda could form part of FTX’s repayment plan, which it filed back in December 2023. This is a huge possibility, considering the defunct trading firm was used as a tool by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) to defraud FTX customers.
Total market cap chart from $1.58 trillion | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on Tradingview.com
Another Whale Contributing To Recent Market Downturn
Grayscale is also believed to have contributed greatly to the recent downturn in the crypto market. The asset manager has had to offload some of its BTC holdings in a bid to fulfill redemptions from GBTC investors. These investors have been taking profits ever since GBTC was converted into a Spot Bitcoin ETF, with an outflow of over $2 billion from the fund since then.
Crypto analytics platform Arkham Intelligence recently revealed that Grayscale had sent out another 12,870 BTC from their wallets. That figure brought the total number of BTC that the asset manager has deposited into Coinbase to 47,900 BTC, which is said to be worth around $1.97 billion based on current prices.
As noted by Arkham, these transactions likely represent redemptions of BTC shares. Interstingly, JP Morgan predicts that Grayscale’s GBTC could experience an outflow of up to $3 billion. If so, then the market could be in for more pain as the asset manager would have to offload more BTC to fulfill these redemptions.
Featured image from Toptal, chart from Tradingview.com
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