According to Arkham Intelligence, a wallet believed to be controlled by the United States government transferred 300 Ether (ETH), worth approximately $699,000, to a wallet address ending in “d46” on August 5th.
The on-chain analytics firm claims that the current $0 balance in the wallet is due to a seizure by the U.S. government.
Ethereum price movement
The reports that the US government has transferred ETH follow several days of disappointing price action following the launch of an Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the US.
Independent analyst Crypto Lion said the lackluster ETH price action following the ETF launch was largely due to lack of demand for the smart contract asset on exchanges.
The lack of demand came as the Bank of Japan’s interest rate hike caused a significant slowdown across financial markets, which further pushed the Ethereum price down.
Related: Ether Dump from Jump Trading: Smart Move or Sign of Trouble?
Ether faced significant selling pressure due to a small number of market makers dumping around 130,000 ETH on the market, which was worth $290 million at the time of writing. This caused Ether to drop to a low of around $2,100 on August 5, with the digital asset trading well below its 200-day exponential moving average.
Ethereum ETF Fund Outflows
According to the CoinShares Weekly Inflows Report dated August 5, digital asset investment products saw their first capital outflows in four weeks.
Ethereum investment funds and products saw $146 million in outflows this week, bringing the total outflows since the launch of Ethereum ETFs in the United States to $430 million.
CoinShares said its data was affected by a $630 million outflow from Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust, which was launched in 2017 and has seen significant outflows since the launch of the Ethereum ETF in late July.
CoinShares analyst James Butterfill has reinforced the theory that the current market downturn is primarily driven by macroeconomic factors and geopolitical tensions. This negative sentiment among investors could indicate that ETH may have a longer recovery period than initially expected.
magazine: Ethereum Price to Delay for ‘Months’ as Bitcoin Surges: X Hall of Flame, Roman