Jeffrey Wilcke, co-founder of Ethereum, recently moved $262 million of ETH to Kraken, sparking concerns about a massive sell-off. However, several hours later, these fears seem largely overblown.
Although Ethereum has been doing well in the last two weeks, it recently experienced new selling pressure and a potential death cross. This may have encouraged undue speculation about Wilcke’s mundane wallet transfers.
Could Wilcke Sell his Ethereum Holdings?
This potential ETH dump was first noticed by Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analysis platform. Arkham found a wallet apparently belonging to Wilcke, which moved the vast majority of its Ethereum holdings in one massive transaction.
This single transfer contained over 100,000 ETH, bringing Wilcke’s remaining holdings to less than 300.
The development caused consternation in the crypto community for several reasons. The last time Wilcke moved so much Ethereum was November 28, 2024, when he transferred 20,000 ETH to Kraken.
This took place almost a week before ETH’s 12-month price peak, and it has not since recovered.
Despite recent success, Ethereum is under renewed selling pressure and a potential death cross. Therefore, a co-founder dumping his total holdings would get a bearish reception. Community speculation ran rampant after the transfer first got publicized.
Could his decision be related to Ethereum’s recent leadership troubles? If Wilcke lost his faith in Ethereum, this would be a dark omen for the whole project.
However, the real story seems to have been less dramatic. For one, Wilcke personally reposted Arkham’s notice of the Ethereum transfers.
He hasn’t commented on the episode in any other way yet, but this could change. Soon afterward, Lookonchain proposed a more mundane explanation for Wilcke’s behavior. Evidence doesn’t point towards a sale at all.
“Eight newly created wallets withdrew 105,736 $ETH ($262 million) from Kraken after Jeffrey Wilcke’s deposit. It is possible that Jeffrey Wilcke did not intend to sell ETH, but just transferred them to other wallets,” Lookonchain claimed.
The community immediately relaxed after this clarification. Major whales get a lot of scrutiny, especially when they’re directly involved with the project in question. To be clear, it doesn’t look like Wilcke had any intentions to sell his holdings.
Some commentators still found it strange that Wilcke would use Kraken to move this much Ethereum to a new wallet. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a minor nitpick.
Whether or not the selling pressure on ETH continues, it doesn’t seem like this co-founder will have anything to do with it.
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