After China’s crackdown on crypto transactions, exchanges began to limit their services for China-based users. FUD rapidly spread and many traders began to wonder what penalties they might face for violating the latest ban.
Around the same time, the normally calm weekend saw a frenzy of Bitcoin and Ethereum whales moving their coins from addresses the crypto exchange, Huobi, which was founded in China.
A whale-planned getaway
The Whale Alert Twitter account sounded the alarm as Bitcoin whales moved around 22,000 BTC or about $952,215,000 (at press time) from the Huobi exchange, to other locations and unknown wallets. The transfers began around 26 September at 03:43 UTC.
Source: Twitter @whale_alert
Ethereum whales were not idle either. At around 06:49 UTC on 26 September, whales moved around 800,000 ETH in instalments of 100,000 ETH or $2,403,039,390 (at press time) from Huobi to other locations and unknown wallets.
Though there were a number of high-value movements, they mostly came from a few wallets making repeated transfers.
Source: Etherscan
Swimming to new harbors
However, the whales aren’t necessarily hodling [or hiding] their coins. Glassnode data showed that Ether exchange inflow volume just reached a one-month high of 12,342.276 ETH, based on the seven day moving average.
? #Ethereum $ETH Exchange Inflow Volume (7d MA) just reached a 1-month high of 12,342.276 ETH
View metric:https://t.co/5BpFXu5Doq pic.twitter.com/SLEbfpjxFb
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) September 26, 2021
However, when looking at the daily on-chain exchange flow for 26 September, Glassnode data showed that $629.6 million left exchanges in BTC while $590.5 million left exchanges in ETH. Both coins saw a negative net flow of more than $100 million each.
? Daily On-Chain Exchange Flow#Bitcoin $BTC
➡️ $495.4M in
⬅️ $629.6M out
? Net flow: -$134.2M#Ethereum $ETH
➡️ $439.0M in
⬅️ $590.5M out
? Net flow: -$151.5M#Tether (ERC20) $USDT
➡️ $371.4M in
⬅️ $385.9M out
? Net flow: -$14.5Mhttps://t.co/dk2HbGwhVw— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) September 26, 2021
News from exchanges
In August this year, Huobi saw an inbound transfer of $740 million in Bitcoin. However, the more recent whales have moved far more in Bitcoin and Ether through the exchange and off it.
Looking at China’s latest ban, investment strategist Raoul Pal suggested that the move could have been a way to clear the crypto scene before the country’s launch of the digital yuan. China’s CBDC has entered the pilot stage, with four cities taking part in the trial. The government is aiming to launch the digital yuan in time for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022.
In an announcement, Huobi Global stated it had “ceased account registration for new users in Mainland China” and would “gradually retire existing Mainland China user accounts” before 2022. Binance has also stopped users with Chinese phone numbers from signing up. Binance, Huobi, and OKEx had been previously blocked by Chinese search engines.
At press time, the Bitcoin Fear and Greed index recorded a value of 27. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Fear and Greed Index recorded a value of 34. Both signaled fear.
