Crypto Whale withdraws over $206 million in Ethereum from Bitfinex

Over the weekend, a crypto whale withdrew more than $16 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) from the Bitfinex exchange within 206 hours, tracker Lookonchain reported.

He thinks The address is said to belong 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 The firm reportedly moved the withdrawn ETH to Spark, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, using it as collateral for the stablecoin DAI .

As a result, the address borrowed 101 million DAI from Spark. This DAI was then converted into 101 million USDC , which was deposited into Binance.

Spark provides various DeFi services, including SparkLend, a DAI-focused money market protocol, and sDAI, a passive income stablecoin.

During the transaction the price of Ethereum was $3,442. Despite rising nearly 3% over the past week, ETH has fallen nearly 10% over the past month and remains more than 25% below its all-time high of $4,878 reached in November 2021.

This serious movement of Ethereum tokens highlighted the important role of large investment managers in the crypto sphere. The use of DeFi platforms such as Spark for such transactions highlights the growing integration of traditional financial strategies with decentralized financial solutions. This development reflects a broader trend of established financial institutions increasingly embracing and using DeFi and cryptocurrencies, signaling potential further advancements in the digital asset ecosystem.