Ethereum Bloodbath Incoming? Celsius’ $125 Million Move Threatens ETH Price

The Ethereum price might be doing well post-spot Bitcoin ETF launch, but recent moves by Celsius threaten to destabilize the price movement. The now-bankrupt crypto lender seems to have begun its reimbursement plan to its creditors, as on-chain data reveal the movement of its ETH holdings to crypto exchanges.

According to crypto market intelligence company Arkham Intelligence, Celsius Network carried out transfers worth over $125 million worth of ETH last week to various crypto exchanges.

Data shows that between January 8 and January 12, Celsius executed transfers worth $95.5 million to crypto exchange Coinbase while also sending $29.73 million to FalconX. At the time of writing, Celsius Network’s balance sheet has 584,601 ETH worth $1.47 billion. Notably, it also has 9,799 BTC worth $418.2 million and 659 million CEL tokens worth $133.2 million on its books, among other cryptocurrencies.

Looks like Celsius took the opportunity to unload >$125M of ETH over ETF Week.

In the past week, they’ve deposited $95.5M to Coinbase and sent $29.73M to FalconX.

They still have $1.4 billion (540K ETH) remaining.https://t.co/jp1PJbN46r pic.twitter.com/xgfX6yU5Ye

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) January 13, 2024

Celsius’s motive behind the transfers into exchange points to nothing apart from an intending selloff, as the company is well on its way to clearing its liabilities under bankruptcy proceedings. 

Celsius filed for bankruptcy in July 2022 shortly after the fall of TerraUSD and the LUNA ecosystem, leading to creditors having their funds trapped on the platform for the last 18 months. However, the defunct crypto lender has been making major moves in its bankruptcy proceedings to refund creditors. According to reports, the company sold $240 million worth of ETH in December 2023.

Notably, the company communicated its decision earlier this month on January 5 to unstake $465 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) which will be distributed to its creditors.

Ethereum is currently on a roll, still on a 13% gain in the past seven days. However, huge selloffs like this tend to shake market confidence, leading to a sell-off from other investors. On the other hand, some tend to believe that the crypto is sufficiently resilient.

It’s important to note that Ethereum retained its bullish sentiment during the time these transfers were made, as price action revealed a 23% jump from $2,191 on January 8 to $2,706 on January 12. Ethereum has declined since then and is now trading at $2,514. According to Coinglass, $23.84 million worth of ETH positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours.

Despite the recent large transfers, Celsius still retains significant cryptocurrency assets including ETH, BTC, MATIC, and LINK. A decision to continue the selling off of these assets could lead to a bigger dent in the price of the assets, particularly Ethereum, which is now testing the $2,500 support level.

On-chain data from Spotonchain also reported FTX and Alameda Research moving 1,000 ETH worth $2.33 million to crypto exchange Coinbase during the week.