Nearly 64k Staked Ethereum or stETH worth approximately $890 million was converted to Eth during the then de-pegging of stETH/ETH in May-June 2022. This was revealed by leading blockchain sleuth Peckshield via tweet.
However, these were not ordinary wallets. As per the data tracker, the three wallets were linked to the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX.
Following the conversion to Ethereum, the wallets resorted to transferring the funds back to the exchange.
On 5/13/2022, stETH/ETH tanked to $0.971. 0x6b92 withdrew 15k stETH [$23.4 million] from FTX, swapped it for 14.3k Ethereum & transferred to FTX On 6/11/2022, stETH/ETH tanked to $0.955, 0x1b23 & 0x2e85 withdrew 49k stETH ($66M) from FTX, swapped it for 42k ETH & then transferred to FTX.
Not only this, Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase shared that the two wallets in question withdrew over $75 million stETH from FTX on June 8, 2022 and sold everything on the market.
They then proceeded to market-sell everything, kicking off a “de-peg” event seen as one of the contributing factors to Celsius’s bank run and the demise of 3AC We know today that SBF/Alameda was behind these sales.
Ethereum: Alameda Suspected To Be The Culprit Behind The Depeg
According to Grogan, this movement spread like a domino effect that led ultimately to the collapse of crypto lender Celsius and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.
The June, stETH depeg event led to significant stress in the market, and many rumors of Celsius liquidity problems. Celcius announced just 4 days after the Alameda stETH sales that it was halting withdrawals.
Although there isn’t much” verifiable proof onchain”, the top exec claimed that Alameda previously doxxed wallets, publicly withdrew liquidity as well as sent stETH to FTX.
Many sharp traders like HsakaTrades had their suspicions, although the motive remains unknown. he added.
Grogan also stated FTX’s sister firm Alameda took 7 figures in slippage in the largest single swap of a crypto trade instead of processing the trade OTC on behalf of Celsius or another big party, raising further suspicions.
It needs to be reminded that Staked ether [stETH] is a crypto token that aims to represent an Ethereum token that is “staked” or deposited to support blockchain operations. The token is designed on Lido, a decentralized finance protocol.