In a recent development within the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem, substantial amounts of digital assets have been transferred to major cryptocurrency exchanges, totaling approximately $140 million.
The movement of funds to exchanges follows a decrease in the supply of the second-largest cryptocurrency, which occurred throughout the month of June.
According to data reported by Whale Alert, a renowned whale monitoring service, multiple transactions worth millions of dollars have taken place, with the cryptocurrency being sent to prominent exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken, and OKX.
One notable transfer involved the movement of 20,000 ETH, valued at over $38 million, from Arbitrum (ARB), a prominent layer-2 scaling solution, to Kraken, a well-established digital asset exchange based in San Francisco.
In another significant transaction, an unidentified wallet transferred $48.3 million, equivalent to 25,264 ETH, to Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the United States based on transaction volume.
Furthermore, an Ethereum whale moved a substantial sum of 30,000 ETH, amounting to nearly $57.7 million, to OKX, a digital currency exchange registered in Seychelles.
These substantial transfers occur at a time when major financial institutions, managing a combined total of $27 trillion in assets, are venturing into the cryptocurrency space following the commencement of the race to list the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States.
Goldman Sachs, in a recent report citing on-chain data, highlighted a decrease in the supply of Bitcoin on exchanges by 4%, reaching levels similar to those recorded in December 2022.
This represents the lowest supply level since November 2020, just before the start of the 2021 bull market. The report also revealed a decline in Ether’s supply on exchanges by 5.8%, reaching levels unseen since May 2018.
Goldman Sachs attributed this shift towards self-custody to various factors, including regulatory challenges faced by spot exchanges and concerns regarding cyber hacks and theft.
Particularly for Ether, the report emphasized that the preference for staking Ether over passive holding on exchanges has led to increased withdrawals and self-custody among investors.
