Ethereum Foundation Transfers 94 Million ETH – Price Rally To Stall?

Following affirmative comments of an impending rate cut by US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Ethereum (ETH) alongside other crypto assets experienced a rapid price gain with the total crypto market cap rising by 6% on Friday. The price of Ethereum in particular moved upward by 6.38% to nearly breach the $2800 price mark. However, amidst this crypto market raving with bullish sentiments, the Ethereum Foundation (EF), a non-profit organization committed to supporting the Ethereum network, has offloaded a substantial amount of ETH.

According to on-chain analytics firm, Spot on Chain, the EF, which is devoted to financing critical developments on the Ethereum network, has been selling small amounts of its holdings in the last few months culminating in 2516 ETH for $7.4 million DAI.

On Friday, the Ethereum Foundation executed its largest sale transaction of 2024 depositing 35,000 ETH worth $93.8 million on the Kraken exchange. Generally, whale transactions of this size usually draw much attention as they are indicative of the market’s next likely movement.

BREAKING: The Ethereum Foundation deposited 35,000 $ETH ($93.8M) to #Kraken an hour ago!

This is their largest $ETH transfer out in 2024 so far. Previously, the Ethereum Foundation had only occasionally sold a few hundred $ETH on DEX, totaling 2,516 $ETH for 7.4M $DAI.… https://t.co/qnagGLL6Oe pic.twitter.com/PRKaSuf3hN

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) August 23, 2024

In particular, this latest transaction by the Ethereum Foundation has been highly speculative, due to the direct affiliation of the organization with the Ethereum network, with some ETH enthusiasts interpreting such a sale as a bearish signal. Notably, in the last few hours following the sale, ETH has experienced a slight decline of 1.3%.

However, general market sentiment remains largely bullish with an anticipated rate cut by the Fed in September. Rate cuts, an inverse of rate hikes, mean lower interest rates which allow investors to acquire more volatile assets such as cryptocurrencies. Following Powell’s announcement on Friday, experts are predicting a rate cut of 30-50bps which could exert relatively positive effects on the crypto market including ETH.

Moreover, the recent price surge may help reduce the effect of the immediate expiry of 140,000 ETH options. This is because the assets’ current price ($2750) is far above the max pain point of these options at $2625, i.e. maximum financial losses would occur if the time of option expiration occurred at this market price. Finally, the Ethereum Foundation still retains a large horde of 273,273.96 ETH valued at $754.76 million. Their most recent market transaction, while significant, does not indicate a lack of confidence in Ethereum.

As earlier stated, Ethereum trades at $2750 following the price boost on Friday. However, long-term traders will be highly expectant of a sustained price rally, as the altcoin still lags by 20.48% on its monthly chart.