Cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) has bought more than $500 million worth of ethereum in the period since CEO Zhu Su publicly attacked the cryptocurrency on Twitter. Are these purchases a sign that he has changed his mind, or is he just taking advantage of the market crash to buy on dips?
Between Nov. 20-22, Zhu Su published a tirade against Ethereum, tweeting why he “abandoned Ethereum despite supporting it in the past.” This tweet It was a response to a tweet from Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, who accused those who "sell themselves out in pursuit of profit maximization." In a Twitter storm, Zhu Su claimed that the Ethereum culture was "deeply influenced by the founders' plight" and that "everyone is already too rich to remember what they were going to do in the first place."
However, after gaining widespread attention, he made a U-turn, stating that he wanted to "soften" his initial stance, stating that "I love Ethereum and what it stands for."
Approximately 156,400 Ethereum (ETH), or $676.37 million, was transferred to a wallet linked to 3AC by blockchain analytics firm Nansen over the 17-day or so period.
Almost all of the funds that entered the wallet during this period were transferred from Binance, the FTX exchange, or Coinbase.
Zhu confirmed the transactions earlier today in response to a tweet from Wu Said the Blockchain, saying that while the Ethereum layer remains "unusable for newcomers," he is still "working hard on anything like this." Panic selling like the weekend."
Most of 3AC's purchases were made during the weekend's price crash, according to the wallet.
When the anti-ETH tweet emerged, many Twitter users thought he was trying to push 3AC’s investment in a competing project, Avalanche (AVAX). Responding to a question from one user, he stated that he “never sold AVAX” and only “bought these ETHs from people who don’t understand financially.”
In early November, Three Arrows Capital was announced as an investor in Blizzard, a fund that facilitates the development of AVAX. Following Zhu’s initial tweet, AVAX knocked Dogecoin (DOGE) from its position as the 10th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Hours before his U-turn, Zhu tweeted out a chart of AVAX's growth, titled "Top 10."
At 23:34 UTC yesterday, 93,791.894 ETH was moved from 3AC’s wallet to an address that appears to belong to a major trader. Smaller amounts were transferred to other addresses, including 500 ether shortly after that was transferred to an apparent NFT investment wallet.