Is the US Govt Preparing to Sell Its ETH Stash? Here’s What We Know

As the bearish trends continue, the United States government has made a surprising move.  On-chain data shared by the blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence shows that the country’s government has sent around 300 ETH (worth $700,000) to a new wallet address at press time.

Widely regarded as a possible “transfer test,” this may be the government’s first step towards liquidating 50,524 ETH (worth over $117.8 million). If true, such a sell-off move could send the crypto market into more price downtrends, a trend that ensued when the German government sold off 50,000 BTC.

The #USGovernment transferred 0.041 $ETH($96) to a new wallet 16 minutes ago, which may be a transfer test.

And the #USGovernment currently holds 50,524 $ETH($117.8M)https://t.co/erV5T8x6eU pic.twitter.com/STPfdiRHiU

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 5, 2024

US Govt to Sell-Off ETH

On-chain data shows that the U.S. government is the largest crypto holder among governments globally. Presently, the country holds over $11 billion worth of crypto assets, such as BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, USDC, and BUSD.

It is uncertain whether the U.S. government plans to sell off its ETH stash. Still, this thought cannot be dismissed since another government has recently made such a move. Last month, the German authorities sold its entire 50,000 BTC stash, confiscated from a film piracy company called Movies2K. While the sell-off occurred, BTC’s price dropped below $55,000.

Minutes into this report, the recipient wallet address holding the 300 ETH has received an additional 0.007 ETH from a Bybit-labelled address, probably as another test transaction.

Crypto Market in Trouble?

Since the U.S. government has not yet made any sale action, there is no assurance that the funds’ movement alone will negatively impact the crypto market.

On the bright side, ETH’s price has remained unshaken by the news of the U.S. government’s ETH movement. At the time of writing, the second-largest cryptocurrency sat above $2,400, representing a 2.5% uptrend within the past hour.