Ethereum (ETH) was recently at the center of a “Christmas controversy.”
What’s Going On with Ethereum?
Several cryptocurrency enthusiasts reported a ton of ether tokens being moved between exchanges on Christmas Day. The selloff left several observers confused and wondering if perhaps a whale was at work, thereby inciting worry and concern that the crypto industry was likely to suffer from some stiff drops. Overall, more than 200,000 Ethereum was moved.
The amount totals nearly $26 million. At first, the money appeared to stem from the currency’s head honcho Vitalik Buterin, who recently claimed that he had sold several ether tokens in the beginning to keep his company alive. However, 90,000 of the Ethereum in question was moved to Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange based in San Francisco. This money was allegedly tied to Jeff Wilcke.
Wilcke – a co-founder of the crypto platform – would likely not have been found out, except he signed up for Ethereum Name Service (ENS) in 2017. Further research also shows that the same address belonging to Wilcke on Kraken garnered as much as 408,000 Ethereum three years ago. Funds have been transferred regularly to this address since then.
Wilcke has come forth to say that the money was moved by him, and that he is using the funds in question for “his game.” Many fans and observers are assuming that he’s referring to his company “Grid Games,” a video game studio.
Wilcke is the co-founder and has been garnering funds for the company regularly on GitHub for several years, though these past nine months have been relatively weak for the crypto executive, and no donations have been made, which may explain why he’s suddenly so quick to move funds around.
Either way, Ethereum isn’t likely to be affected negatively by the switching of exchanges according to another source. In fact, Ethereum may be well on its way to striking the $240 mark by the time January 2020 rolls around.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and is currently trading for just over $126 per unit. This means that for this prediction to come true, the token will have to nearly double in price over the course of four weeks.
A Price Hike By Next Month?
Ethereum has been suffering greatly thanks, in part, to the Chinese crypto Ponzi scheme known as Plus Token. The scam allegedly stole roughly $3 billion from investors, and many of those involved in the scam are believed to still contain large amounts of crypto in their wallets, particularly Ethereum, which means that when the time is right, they can potentially manipulate ETH prices.
Bitcoin itself has allegedly been subjected to price manipulation through Tether – a controversial stable currency – according to University of Texas finance professor John Griffin.
