Whale’s Smart Crypto Sale Prevents Losses

A crypto whale holding vast quantities of ether sold $41 million worth of the asset a few days before the market collapsed, thereby avoiding a $5 million loss.

The transaction was flagged by the blockchain analysis platform Lookonchain, which tracks and shares what it deems to be intelligent trades.

List of transactions that the crypto whale made before the crash. Source: Etherscan

The crypto behemoth deposited 22,341 ETH on the Binance exchange on August 18 and withdrew approximately $41 million in Tether on the same day.

While the crypto whale lost approximately $1.7 million in value, the speculator was able to avoid additional losses that could have amounted to more than $5 million as market prices fell.

The market capitalization of cryptocurrencies declined 6% on August 18 to $1.1 trillion, the lowest level in at least two months. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, fell from approximately $1,820 per token on August 17 to approximately $1,590 per token on August 18.

In the meantime, Bitcoin, which accounts for roughly half of the entire cryptocurrency market, fell from approximately $28,400 to $25,649 in the same time frame before recovering to surpass $26,000 within a few hours.

The price decline occurred after The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk’s aerospace technology company, SpaceX, wrote down BTC worth $373 million between 2021 and 2022.

Uncertainty persists as to whether or not the entire holdings were sold. In the meantime, the Bitcoin write-down caused confusion within the cryptocurrency community.

Some media outlets reported that the company sold the entire stash, while others were unable to corroborate the amount based on the wording of the report.

Some users on X (formerly Twitter) criticized Musk on the platform, stating that he had “paper hands,” which is a term used to describe those who are unable to hold onto their cryptocurrency for an extended period.