Ethereum Market Gets the Jitters as ICO Project Offloads $100M Ether

• Golem Network’s recent ETH transfers have stirred sell-off concerns.
• Golem failed to respond directly to these concerns during a conversation with DailyCoin.
• Golem was thought to hold significant promise during Ethereum’s ICO era.

The crypto market has been rife with uncertainty in recent weeks as piling bitcoin selling pressure has sent market sentiment and asset prices diving . Amid the downturn, Ethereum , the second largest crypto asset by market cap, has recently come into focus as exchange deposits from a ghost from the past have sparked speculation of a significant sell-off.

Over $100M in ETH Sent to Exchanges

ETH exchange deposits from Golem Network , one of the first Ethereum projects to raise funds via an initial coin offering, have sparked concern among holders. On Monday, July 8, dedicated crypto news X account Wu Blockchain reported that the project had sent 36,000 ETH worth over $100 million to exchanges over the past month.

Arkham Intelligence analysis of the project’s multi-signature address suggests that these transfers have occurred almost daily in the past week in clips of between 2,000 ETH to 3,000 ETH per day, worth between $7 million and $8 million. The recent ETH transfers have sparked speculation of a sell-off, especially as the project still holds over 126,000 ETH worth nearly $400 million.

In response to a request for comment, Golem Network referred DailyCoin to a June 18 blog post where it unveiled plans to increase the project’s yield through ETH staking on exchanges without directly answering questions about the purpose of the transfer or its plans for its remaining ETH holdings.

Golem was thought to hold significant promise during Ethereum’s ICO era, raising 820,000 ETH in 29 minutes in 2016. This ETH stash has, however, significantly declined over the years, with steep declines coming in 2017, 2019, and 2020.

Dashed Hopes

Golem Network came to prominence in the Ethereum ICO era between 2016 and 2019, where, driven by speculation, several projects, many of which have failed to live up to expectations, were able to raise millions of dollars.

Golem’s promise to decentralize access to computing resources had struck a chord with several investors, as evidenced by its quickly sold-out ICO. The product’s eventual launch in 2018, however, failed to spark the same buzz. Likely factors for the disinterest include its long time to market and launch in a bear market.

In recent months, the network has outlined a pivot to serving the AI industry, which has received increased attention over the past year. Whether this pivot has yielded a measurable increase in interest is unclear, as the project’s native token trades around $0.32, according to CoinMarketCap data at the time of writing, far from its all-time high of $1.32, formed in April 2018.

On the Flipside

• The purpose of the Golem Network transfers remains unclear.
• Ethereum’s price does not appear to have been significantly impacted by the news, trading above $3,000, according to CoinMarketCap data at the time of writing, representing a 2% gain in the past 24 hours.

Why This Matters

Golem Network holds a significant amount of ETH, so its asset transfers could have short-term impacts on the asset’s price and sentiment.

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