ApeCoin Whales Move $17.54M to OTC Amid Volatility: APE Dump Incoming?

Major whale activity has been detected in the Apecoin (APE) ecosystem, with three major wallets transferring 12.47 million APE tokens (worth $17.54 million) to Wintermute Trading’s OTC desk.

This movement comes after APE’s price surged 143% following the ApeChain launch.

A dormant wallet tied to @ApeCoin transferred 4.58M $APE ($5.22M) to Wintermute Trading OTC 3 hours ago!

Following a 143% price surge after the #ApeChain launch 4 days ago, 3 wallets that received $APE from the ApeCoin distributor in 2022 moved 12.47M $APE ($17.54M) to… pic.twitter.com/pKuOMnhW9j

— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) October 24, 2024

Dormant ApeCoin wallet moves APE

Most recently, a dormant wallet moved 4.58 million APE ($5.22 million) to Wintermute Trading OTC, according to data from Spot On Chain.

These transfers coincide with a sharp price correction, as APE experiences a 6% decline in the past 24 hours. This is despite maintaining a 60% gain over the past week.

The analysis reveals that all transferring wallets received their tokens from the original ApeCoin distributor in 2022.

More importantly, 84 of the top 100 APE-holding wallets continue to maintain substantial positions, collectively holding 382.71 million APE tokens ($443.9 million), representing 51% of the circulating supply.

This concentration of holdings among early distributees raises questions about potential market impact from future whale movements. All these major wallets can be traced back to the same 2022 distribution event that supplied the recently active sellers.

The timing of these transfers to Wintermute’s OTC desk suggests possible profit-taking following the substantial price increase sparked by the ApeChain launch. OTC desks typically handle large transactions to minimize direct market impact.

ApeCoin is trading at $1.13 at press time, according to CoinGecko data.