11,680 Ethereum in 48 Hours: Crypto Whale Sells More Than 1,000 NFTs
In one of the biggest sell-offs ever, an Ethereum whale sold 1,010 of his NFTs.
In one of the biggest sell-offs ever, an Ethereum whale sold 1,010 of his NFTs. The value: about 20 million US dollars.
In just 48 hours, Ethereum investor Jeffrey Hwang triggered one of the biggest waves of selling the NFT market has ever seen, according to Andrew Thurman, a staff member at crypto analytics firm Nansen. In the process, he sold 1,010 NFTs, including some from major collections:
- 90 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for 5,707 ETH.
- 191 Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs for 3,091 ETH.
- 112 Azuki NFTs for 1,644 ETH.
- 308 Otherdeed NFTs for 582 ETH.
In total, Hwang sold the equivalent of 11,680 Ether in NFTs, worth about $20 million at the time of writing. However, he did not make a profit from this move in ETH, because he had bought most of the NFTs he sold at higher prices. Even more unusual is the fact that Hwang bought back a total of 991 of his NFTs shortly after selling them.
Was the Airdrop Behind the NFT Selling?
According to crypto analyst Thurman, Hwang's move looks like an attempt to lock in profits from NFT trading while also generating rewards through fake trading in OpenSea rival Blur's recently launched airdrop campaign.
That suspicion seems likely from several angles and would be classified as market manipulation in other markets, which would lead to legal consequences. But because there is still no clear regulation on this issue in the crypto sector, it can be assumed that Hwang does not have to worry about any consequences.
Ethereum whale Hwang was one of the biggest recipients of the first Blur (BLUR) token airdrops. View post on X shows that he received about 1.8 million BLUR tokens, which are currently worth $1.5 million. The amount of BLUR tokens investors received in recent airdrops depended in part on the number of NFTs traded on Blur. So it looks like the Ethereum investor is trying to rack up more BLUR airdrops through the rapid sell-offs and buybacks via fake trading. The team at Blur has not yet commented on this event or the resulting manipulation on its marketplace.
