Crypto Whale Withdraws Over 206 Million in Ethereum from Bitfinex

Over the weekend, a crypto whale withdrew Ethereum (ETH) worth over $206 million from the Bitfinex exchange within 16 hours, as reported by the tracker Lookonchain. It is believed that the address belongs to Abraxas Capital Management, a UK-based investment firm specializing in cryptocurrencies since 2017. As of April 2024, Abraxas Capital Management manages over $2 billion in digital assets across three funds. The firm reportedly moved the withdrawn ETH to Spark, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, using them as collateral for the stablecoin DAI. Consequently, the address borrowed 101 million DAI from Spark. This DAI was then converted into 101 million USDC, which was deposited into Binance. Read more:

Among all cryptocurrencies, Ethereum investment products performed the worst. Spark offers various DeFi services, including SparkLend, a money market protocol focused on DAI, and sDAI, a stablecoin that yields passive income. During the transaction, the price of Ethereum was $3,442. Despite a nearly 3% increase over the past week, ETH has seen a nearly 10% decline over the past month and remains over 25% below its historical peak of $4,878 reached in November 2021. This significant movement of Ethereum tokens highlights the important role of large investment managers in the crypto sphere. The use of DeFi platforms like Spark for such transactions underscores the growing integration of traditional financial strategies with decentralized financial solutions. This development reflects a broader trend of established financial institutions increasingly adopting and utilizing DeFi and cryptocurrencies, signaling potential further progress in the digital asset ecosystem.