Trading Firms Deposit Millions in BTC, ETH and ARB to Exchanges as Crypto Sell-Off Intensifies

Jump Trading, Wintermute and Abraxas Capital deposited large amounts of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and Arbitrum’s ARB token to crypto exchanges during Monday’s crypto market sell-off, blockchain data shows.

Asset manager Abraxas Capital transferred 14,130 ETH – worth roughly $22.5 million – to Bitfinex in two transactions, blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence noted in an X post. Major market maker Jump Trading sent nearly 236 BTC – worth $5.9 million – to Binance in one installment, Arkham added.

Blockchain sleuth Lookonchain noted that Wintermute, another large market maker, deposited more than $3.3 million in ARB to Binance over the past 8 hours.

Smaller traders follow the on-chain maneuvers of large institutional traders as they are considered well-informed and have significant sway over the market. Sending tokens to exchanges may signal intention to sell, but it can also be part of market makers shuffling funds between different exchanges to provide liquidity.

Today’s transfers happened as crypto markets turned down sharply on concerns about crypto exchange FTX potentially shedding its $3.4 billion digital asset stash. September is a historically turbulent month for digital assets, with BTC scoring negative returns every year since 2016, Coinglass data shows.

BTC was barely holding above the $25,000 level, dropping 2.8% in the past 24 hours. ETH declined 4.7% to its lowest price since March. ARB led the drop among major cryptocurrencies, tanking 11% on the day.