The crypto arm of Jump Trading, Jump Crypto, has unstaked about 120,000 ETH worth over $275 million. Jump Crypto will likely sell these assets as it has been moving them to crypto exchanges Binance, Coinbase, OKX, Bybit, and Gate.io wallets, according to Arkham Intelligence data.
On-chain analyst Ember CN mentioned on X, “Jump Trading may be selling ETH: they are currently redeeming a wstETH (120,000 pieces) worth US$410 million in batches into ETH and then transferring it to exchanges such as Binance/OKX. So far, they have unpacked 83,000 wstETH and redeemed them into 97,500 ETH in the 9 days since July 25, of which 66,000 ETH ($191.4M) have entered the exchange.” Since that post went up, ETH’s price, alongside other cryptos’ prices, fell drastically, reducing the value of ETH unstaked and transferred by Jump Crypto.
The trading firm started moving the assets to exchanges a day after spot ETH ETFs went live in the US. Many analysts are now speculating that Jump Crypto‘s actions prevented ETH from growing as expected after the launch of the ETFs. Furthermore, they believe that the firms activities are also forcing crypto prices to drop, in tandem with other macroeconomic factors.
Despite the unstaking and sending to exchanges, Jump Crypto still has over 40,000 ETH locked in liquidity staking protocols Lido Finance and Rocket Pool, amounting to over $110 million. Nevertheless, it has also moved assets to exchanges beyond ETH, like USDC, USDT, UNI, and SHIB.
The crypto community did not take kindly to the news. Many fired at Jump Crypto for offloading high volumes in the aftermath of a historically bad week for stock markets worldwide. Adam Cochran, partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, stated, “Jump liquidating their crypto book into thin markets on a summer Sunday afternoon, perfectly sums up why their crypto operation is such a mess.” X user and crypto enthusiast Wazz mentioned, “That means they got ppl to work fuckin SHIFTS dumping their books on an illiquid weekend following the worst stock market day in years.”
Jump Crypto has also been in the news for another negative reason not too long ago—the resignation of its president, Kanav Kariya, with a Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigation looming over the firm.
