Jump Crypto, a division of Jump Trading, is making headlines as it recently moved hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to various exchanges. This has spurred speculation that the company may be preparing to divest a significant portion of its crypto assets.
The recent transactions involve over 120,000 staked-Ether tokens, with a total value of around $314.8 million. This significant activity began on July 24, one day after the introduction of Ether exchange-traded funds in the U.S. According to data retrieved from blockchain analytics platform Arkham, these funds were first unstaked at an Ethereum redeem address, then transferred to several exchanges including Binance, OKX, Coinbase, ByBit, and Gate.io.
Crypto analyst EmberCN asserts that Jump Crypto has unstaked roughly $410 million worth of Ether, of which $191 million has already found its way to crypto exchanges. Despite the massive transactions, Jump Crypto reportedly still holds at least $125.8 million of staked-Ether, including $116.1 million of wrapped-Lido Staked Ether (WSTETH). The company has also moved various other cryptocurrencies, including USD Coin, Tether, Ether, Uniswap, and Shiba Inu, to exchanges.
Market watchers and crypto experts are now left to speculate whether Jump Crypto is planning to liquidate its hefty crypto assets, as the steady flow of funds to exchanges seems to suggest. This move has sparked criticism within the crypto community, some slamming the firm for transferring such a vast amount over the weekend. Critics argued that this action could potentially disrupt the market, especially following a significant decline in the overall crypto market cap.
This revelation comes several weeks after Kanav Kariya, former President of Jump Crypto, resigned amidst reports of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission investigation.