FTX’s bankruptcy estate has transferred 27,372 ETH, worth about $75.32m, to market maker Wintermute as Ether approaches $2,800.
The transaction was completed on Tuesday through six separate wallets, according to on-chain analyst EmberCN. The movement involved assets being liquidated by FTX and Alameda Research.
Blockchain surveillance firm Lookonchain separately identified part of the same operation, reporting a deposit of 23,639 ETH valued at $65.05m. There has been no confirmation that the tokens have been sold, but the transfer shows the estate has both the intention and the means to bring a substantial amount of Ether to market.
Wintermute operates as an over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. Bankruptcy estates commonly use such firms to avoid placing large orders directly into public markets, where a $75m sale could move the price and attract front-running.
By using a market maker, the holding can instead be distributed over a period of days and executed in amounts that the market can absorb. The compromise is that the estate may sacrifice some potential upside in return for greater certainty over the execution of the sale.
Creditors have previously questioned similar decisions. Bitcoin.com News reported concerns when FTX sold $1.9bn of Solana at $64 per SOL, with the discount drawing scrutiny. The sales conducted by the estate are designed to provide certainty rather than maximise the final dollar received.
Ether was trading near $2,750 today, up 1% over the day and 15% over the week, giving it a market capitalisation of more than $338bn. Bitcoin increased by 14% over the same period.
The stronger market has provided the estate with more favourable conditions than earlier in the year, when it was regularly selling into weakness. Demand has also been visible elsewhere on-chain, with an OTC whale buying 15,000 ETH worth $41.26m on the same day.
That purchase increased the whale’s position, accumulated since July, to 52,000 ETH.
Since the collapse of the now-defunct exchange, FTX’s Recovery Trust has completed five distribution rounds worth roughly $11bn in total. The fourth distribution, made on 31 March, paid about $2.2bn, while the fifth released roughly $900m on 3 July.
The estate has continued converting assets to support those repayments. Bitcoin.com News has tracked Alameda transferring $16m in Solana linked to repayments, wallets moving $8.6m to Binance and an earlier $5bn transfer to wallets.
Some decisions have attracted criticism, including the sale of Alameda’s stake in Cursor for only $200,000. That investment is now valued considerably higher.
The immediate question for the market is whether further Ether transfers of a similar size will arrive as prices rise. One $75m tranche can be absorbed at current trading volumes, but a continuing sequence of sales could create a ceiling for Ether.
