One of biggest Ethereum wallets on chain is not owned by conscientious investors
Following the alleged FTX “hack”, the programmer’s wallet swelled to a threshold of $280 million, making it one of the largest wallets on the blockchain. However, this lack of predictability can cause serious problems for the market.
By taking an enormous volume of funds off of the exchange, the hacker acquired control of a large chunk of funds that he later exchanged for Ethereum and sent to yet another wallet. The majority of blockchain observers assumed that he would send those funds to coin mixing solutions like Tornado Cash to sell later on.
However, the funds are still sitting in the hacker’s wallet undisturbed. Potentially, the hacker may face some issues after transferring funds through Tornado Cash, given the increasing number of OFAC-compliant blocks that may limit his transactions.
At the same time, a large number of validators are still processing funds on the network without looking back at OFAC guidelines, which is why the hacker will most likely move funds through in the foreseeable future and sell them later on.
Unfortunately, illegal representatives of the industry are not known for their rational approach to profiting from stolen funds. Most blockchain criminals are dumping their holdings at market prices on any available trading platform and then setting up ways to cash out their digital assets in the real world.
Luckily, Ethereum remains one of the most liquid assets on the market that can easily withstand a $200 million selling pressure spike without plunging to multi-month lows. At press time, Ether is not reacting to the rising probability of a $200 million sell-off and is trading at $1,250.
