Elwood Technologies’ Large ETH Transfers Raise Questions Amid Acquisition Talks

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

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

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

We noticed that Elwood(@elwood_io) deposited 26,811 $ETH($83.17M) to #Binance in the past 3 days.

Another #Elwood-related address withdrew 24,463 $ETH($75.88M) from #Binance in the past 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 movements of ETH from corporations, governments, or financial institutions often rattle markets as fears of selling pressure increase. However, it remains unclear what Elwood Technologies is planning.

Moreover, the move comes around the same time as the news that investment bank Standard Chartered is mulling an acquisition of part of Elwood Capital, a subsidiary of Elwood Technologies that offers crypto OTC 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 large Ethereum movements this week that have raised eyebrows. The Golem decentralized computing platform and one of the earliest 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 around $124.6 million on July 10.

Golem(@golemproject) appears to have stopped selling $ETH, and he staked 40,000 $ETH($124.6M) 8 hours ago.https://t.co/JLwB4bmBtQ pic.twitter.com/HzizTZ01YG

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 11, 2024

This week, CryptoPotato reported that Ethereum staking had reached record levels of 47.36 million ETH, accounting for around 34% of the entire supply.

ETH Price Outlook

ETH prices have oscillated between $3,145 and $3,068 over the past 24 hours but have not really been impacted by these whale movements.

The asset has moved off its intraday low to trade at $3,110 at the time of writing but remains down 3% over the past week.

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

Investors hope that an imminent spot ETF launch in the United States will boost sentiment and prices for the world’s second-largest digital asset.