Wintermute Loads Up on $36M in ARB Before Major Token Unlock

In the past eight hours, cryptocurrency trading firm Wintermute Trading has accumulated a net amount of 17.08 million Arbitrum (ARB) tokens, according to data from blockchain analysis firm Spot On Chain. This represents a total value of $36.3 million.

The increase in Wintermute’s ARB holdings comes just two days before a scheduled unlock of 1.11 billion ARB tokens, worth approximately $2.23 billion, on March 16, 2024.

Wintermute Trading Transactions. Source: Spot On Chain

Over the past eight hours, according to Spot On Chain, Wintermute Trading withdrew 19.19 million ARB tokens from cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase. Moreover, the firm deposited 2.11 million ARB tokens on the cryptocurrency exchanges OKX and Gate.io.

The data showed that Wintermute Trading’s current holdings of ARB tokens total 29.48 million, valued at approximately $61.9 million.

The timing of the increase coincides with the upcoming significant ARB token unlock, suggesting that the firm may be positioning itself to profit from potential market volatility.

The price of Arbitrum token ARB currently rests at $2.06, down by 3.20% in the last 24 hours. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market capitalization sits at $2.6 billion, and the trading volume in the past 24 hours stands at $1,200,784,118, marking a 37.59% increase.

Arbitrum, which is an Ethereum layer-two scaling solution, experienced a decrease in fees following Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade. According to reports, the upgrade, which went live on March 13, resulted in decreased fees for various L2 networks, including Optimism, zkSync, and Coinbase’s Base.