The Ethereum cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), could be facing an imminent wave of selling that will pressure its price downwards. This is according to new movements detected in the coins seized from PlusToken, a project declared a Ponzi scheme in China.
More than 7,000 ETH of the 542,000 ETH (valued at USD 1.3 billion), which remained seized from PlusToken, were sent to exchanges this week. Target platforms include Binance, BitGet and OKX, according to detected the researcher known as FreeSamourai.
According to the specialist, the set of movements indicates intention to begin selling all remaining ETH seizure by PlusToken. This is because in general cryptocurrency shipments to exchanges are made to exchange for cash.
“This recently observed behavior introduces a new and unexpected oversupply in Ethereum,” highlights FreeSamourai. In other words, it clarifies that it represents the probability of sale of the USD 1.3 billion of ETH seized in the future.
To put it in context, it is worth remembering that the Chinese authorities arrested the authors of PlusToken in 2019 after it was classified as a Ponzi scheme with crypto assets. This project offered attractive rewards to those who acquired their tokens with bitcoin (BTC) or ether (ETH), as CriptoNoticias reported at the time.
By the time of its closure, the project had accumulated around 194,000 BTC and 830,000 ETH, which was seized by Chinese authorities. Of this, it is estimated that they sold 150,000 BTC between 2019 and 2020, while just under a third of ETH in 2021, according to on-chain research by FreeSamourai.
According to the specialist, the remaining ETH remained in thousands of addresses untouched until early August 2024. By then, it was placed in a new set of 294 addresses, with a final balance of 542,000 ETH.
15,700 ETH were transferred this week from these last known addresses, re-entering a mixing process similar to that previously used for sales. Of this, just over 7,000 ETH was sent to a handful of exchange deposit addresses, as seen below.
More movements of ETH seized from PlusToken made possible
ETH inflows into exchanges can be monitored using the following deposit addresses. However, “it is likely that additional addresses will be activated over time,” warns FreeSamourai.
- 0x7a5ade12b46f1711cbf2a8290dec9cacfb31b644 in BitGet
- 0xcd24c91f4981bb265febf07c9199e1f0eeab47c1 on Binance
- 0x559378587988f3d30f9ab36b611F03e78bff48Fd in OkX
“Given the recent effort to re-obfuscate ETH, it is unlikely that the active distribution of the mentioned 15,700 moved ETH will be the last of the supply distribution of 540,000 ETH,” concludes the researcher.
Therefore, It would not be surprising downward pressure on the price of the cryptocurrency.
Meanwhile, as can be seen in the image above, ETH is trading at USD 2,300, remaining in the corrective period it has been in for seven months.