Analysts have reported that over 656,200 ETH (worth approximately $1.6 billion) were unlocked last week, marking the largest scale of ETH unlocking since the Shanghai upgrade. However, as much as 85% of the redemption came from Celsius and staking service provider Figment.
In January, the bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius announced its plan to unlock existing Ethereum collateral and distribute it to creditors. At that time, blockchain analyst Nansen monitored that Celsius’s collateral address held 556,906 ETH, valued at around $1.24 billion.
Since then, the market has closely observed the impact of Celsius’ large-scale unlocking, as creditors may directly sell the ETH they receive. According to analyst Tom Wan from 21.co, over 656,200 ETH (worth approximately $1.6 billion) were unlocked last week, marking the largest scale of ETH unlocking since the Shanghai upgrade. Among them, 85% of the redemption came from Celsius and staking service provider Figment (Nansen previously pointed out that Celsius had staked around 200,000 ETH through Figment).
According to the shared Dune chart, Figment redeemed 356,400 ETH, while Celsius reclaimed 206,900 ETH (equivalent to $520 million).
Last Saturday (13th), the tracking platform Arkham reported that Celsius transferred $125 million worth of ETH to an exchange, suspected of selling it, taking advantage of the timing of Bitcoin spot ETF listing.
Despite the large-scale unlocking of Ethereum in the past week, the price of Ethereum has increased by approximately 9.3%, possibly benefiting from the potential approval of an ETH spot ETF this year. After briefly surpassing $2,700 last Saturday, it has been fluctuating around $2,500. As of the deadline, it was reported at $2,520.4, a 0.9% increase in the past 24 hours.
Analyst Eric Balchunas from Bloomberg stated last week that he believes the SEC’s approval of the first Bitcoin spot ETF indicates the possibility of an Ethereum spot ETF being launched this year, with the probability of approval in May rising to 70%.
A sentiment survey released last week by Santiment on the X platform showed that 52.4% of respondents believed that the United States will launch an Ethereum spot ETF before the end of this year. 9.8% of respondents were more optimistic, expecting approval this month, and 26.5% favored approval in the next year or later.
However, some institutions have poured cold water on the situation, predicting that the SEC will not approve an Ethereum spot ETF soon. TD Cowen, a US investment bank, believes that the SEC may approve it only after the November US presidential election, while JPMorgan believes that the possibility of the SEC categorizing Ethereum as a commodity and allowing the listing of an Ethereum spot ETF before May does not exceed 50%.
Related Reports:
– “When will the Ethereum spot ETF be approved?” 52% of the survey respondents are optimistic about before the end of 2024; TD Cowen and JPMorgan: Not approved soon.
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– Ethereum is next! Spot ETF is expected to be approved for listing this year! Bloomberg analyst: SEC has implicitly recognized ETH as a commodity.