According to Bloomberg, a wallet linked to a major cryptocurrency theft two years ago exchanged $39.75 million of the stablecoin DAI for 16,892 Ethereum (ETH), as the second-largest cryptocurrency fell 23% on Monday.
Hacker Exploits Ethereum Crash
According to reportThe hacker behind the 2022 attack on cross-chain bridge protocol Nomad that resulted in the theft of nearly $200 million in crypto appears to have spotted an opportunity to convert some of his illicit gains into discounted ETH prices.
On-chain data showed that after purchasing ETH, the hacker then moved the tokens in batches of 100 to Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused exchange that has come under scrutiny from U.S. regulators for its alleged use for laundering illicit funds crypto hacks.
Despite this, significant selling pressure prevented a significant rebound in the market’s second-largest cryptocurrency as large corporations contributed to the continued decline.
DeFi market analyst Mochi pointed out that the “obliteration” of ETH was caused by the capitulation of large investment funds. According to According to the researcher, venture capital firm Paradigm sold 46,000 ETH tokens worth about $138 million at $3,000.
Similarly, the asset manager and ETF Issuer Grayscale reportedly sold 372,000 ETH at a valuation of $1.1 billion through its recently approved Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States.
Finally, market maker Jump Trading has sold more than $500 million worth of Ethereum in recent days after liquidating his funds amid rumors he was exiting the cryptocurrency market maker industry.
ETFs see net outflows of $430 million
Amid these bearish developments, digital asset investment products saw their first significant outflows in over a month, according to the latest report. report CoinShares. The report said these products, which include exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrency trusts, saw total outflows of $528 million last week.
The capital outflows are believed to be a response to growing fears of a recession in the United States, as well as the continuing financial crisis. geopolitical concerns and broader liquidations across most asset classes. Trading volumes for these investment products also declined, representing less than 25% of the total cryptocurrency market, below average.
Regionally, the majority of capital outflows were concentrated in the United States, where they amounted to $531 million. Germany and Hong Kong also recorded capital outflows of $12 million and $27 million, respectively.
However, not all regions were affected equally, with Canada and Switzerland seeing capital inflows of $17 million and $28 million respectively, likely benefiting from lower prices.
Ethereum saw capital outflows totaling $146 million, bringing the net outputs Since the launch of Ethereum ETFs in the US, the ETFs have generated $430 million. However, this data masks positive inflows of $430 million last week from the newly launched US ETFs, which were offset by outflows of $603 million from the Grayscale Trust.
At the time of writing, Ethereum has managed to regain the $2,450 level, recording declines of 28% in the last week alone and over 31% in the last two weeks despite this slight recovery.
Featured image of DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
