An Ethereum whale has been spotted withdrawing 16,449 Ether valued at approximately $50.3 million from Binance. This transaction occurred as the price of Ether rebounded over $3,000.
According to Spot On Chain, an onchain data provider, the whale’s activity marks their first significant accumulation of Ether (ETH), with the entire amount moved to a new wallet.
Withdrawal timing
The timing of the withdrawal is notable, with an expected launch of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States coming sometime in the next week. In their post on X, Spot On Chain questioned whether the large transfer could be a bullish signal for Ethereum.
The introduction of an ETF is expected to increase institutional interest and investment in Ether, potentially driving up its price.
Ether’s price surged 10.11% to $3,113 on July 9, up from a low of about $2,830 the previous day. The rally happened alongside the release of CoinShares’ weekly report, which showed that Ether-linked investment funds received inflows of $10.2 million for the week ending July 5.
Updating Ether ETF registrations
Asset management companies VanEck and 21Shares amended their S-1 registrations in July 8 filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to gain approval in July and list and trade shares of a spot Ether ETF.
Related: Ethereum ETFs ‘close to the finish line’ — Bitwise exec
21Shares also submitted an updated form for its Core Ethereum ETF. While the filings do not provide an exact launch date for US exchanges, they state that the ETFs would launch “as soon as practicable after the effective date” of the registration.
Meanwhile, there has been increasing competition among ETF sponsors ahead of the expected launch of spot Ether ETFs. On July 9, Invesco and Galaxy set a 0.25% management fee for the Invesco Galaxy Ethereum ETF in a filing to US regulators.
The SEC gave the go-ahead to spot Ether ETFs in May. However, investors withdrew $61 million from Ether investment products between June 24 and 29, bringing the total outflows for the month’s end to $119 million and June’s total balance to $37 million in funds withdrawn.
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