Whales pull $150 million in Ethereum from Binance and Kraken

Analysts Lookonchain, over the past week, recorded three large withdrawals from cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Kraken, totaling 86,520 ETH (about $150 million).

3 fresh wallets withdrew a total of 86,520 $ETH ($150M) from #Binance and #Kraken in the past week.

0x5bA3 withdrew 35,860 $ETH from #Binance and transferred to a contract address.

0x7c82 withdrew 27K $ETH from #Binance.

0x2c74 withdrew 23,660 $ETH from #Kraken. pic.twitter.com/FvWtXHJvNO

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) June 19, 2023

• The first whale moved 35,860 ETH from the Binance address, worth more than $64 million;

• The second — withdrew 27,000 ETH worth about $48 million from the largest trading-volume exchange, across four transfers;

• The third wallet withdrew 23,660 ETH from Kraken, worth more than $42 million across five transactions.

Whale outflows from centralised exchanges are likely linked to traders opting to self-custody amid regulatory issues in the United States.

On June 5, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a suit against Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao. The agency brought 13 charges, including the sale of unregistered securities. 

In response, the company issued a statement, in which it said it was prepared to ‘vigorously defend itself’.

Binance.US announced the suspension of USD deposits and urged clients to withdraw fiat funds by June 13.

On June 6, the SEC leveled similar charges against the crypto exchange Coinbase. The company refused to alter its business model due to the Commission’s lawsuit.

Earlier, analysts at Glassnode reported that since Binance’s charges were brought, the platform’s Bitcoin balances have fallen by 10,500 BTC.

Whales, institutional investors and venture-capital firms bought the dips following news of the lawsuits, according to Lookonchain.