Elwood Technologies’ large ETH transfers raise questions amid takeover talks

On July 11, on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain identified a large ETH deposit and withdrawal from Elwood Technologies to Binance.

The address linked to Elwood deposited 26,811 ETH worth about $83 million into Binance over the past three days.

The entity also withdrew 24,463 ETH worth about $76 million from the centralized exchange over the past two days.

We noticed that Elwood(@elwood_io) deposited 26,811 $ETH($83.17 million) a #Binance in the last 3 days.

Another #Elwood-related address withdrew 24,463 $ETH($75.88 million) from #Binance in the last 2 days.https://t.co/LvMWpxJMEhhttps://t.co/Y38nXm3wUuhttps://t.co/CdNPeJyKGI… pic.twitter.com/hlNenzEVKk

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 11, 2024

More ETH Selling Pressure?

Some of the responses to the post on X suggested it was bullish, and others said it was market manipulation. Elwood Technologies was created by billionaire investor Alan Howard, co-founder of hedge fund Brevan Howard.

Large ETH moves by corporations, governments or financial institutions often shake up the markets as selling pressure builds. However, it is still unclear what Elwood Technologies is planning.

In addition, the move comes at the same time as the news that investment bank Standard Chartered is considering acquiring a part of Elwood Capital, a subsidiary of Elwood Technologies that offers OTC crypto services.

The move would give Standard Chartered’s crypto division, Zodia Markets, virtual asset service provider licenses in Jersey and support a shift towards OTC settlement services.

Elwood Technologies raised $70 million in a Series A round led by Goldman Sachs in May 2022.

There have been other big Ethereum moves this week that have raised eyebrows. Decentralized computing platform Golem and one of the first ICO projects has also been moving a lot of ETH to centralized exchanges.

However, Lookonchain reported that Golem “appears to have stopped selling ETH” and staked 40,000 ETH worth about $124.6 million on July 10.

Golem (@golemproject) seems to have stopped selling $ETHand bet 40,000 $ETH($124.6 million) 8 hours ago.https://t.co/JLwB4bmBtQ pic.twitter.com/HzizTZ01YG

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 11, 2024

This week, CryptoPotato reported that Ethereum holdings had reached record levels of 47.36 million ETH, representing about 34% of the entire supply.

ETH Price Outlook

ETH prices have fluctuated between $3,145 and $3,068 over the past 24 hours, but haven’t really been affected by these whale moves.

The asset is down from its intraday low to trade at $3,110 at the time of writing, but is up 3% over the past week.

Additionally, ETH has retreated about 24% since its 2024 high of just over $4,000 in mid-March.

Investors expect an impending spot ETF launch in the U.S. to boost sentiment and prices for the world’s second-largest digital asset.

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