Ethena price slips after BitMex founder Arthur Hayes moves tokens

Ethena erased some of the gains made on Friday, Dec. 12, after on-chain data showed that Arthur Hayes was selling.

Ethena (ENA) token retreated to $1.10, down from an intraday high of $1.2240. It has dropped by over 16% from its highest level this month.

Data by Nansen shows that Hayes, the co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, moved 7 million tokens worth $8.47 million to Binance. Moving a cryptocurrency from a self-custody wallet is usually a sign that a crypto investor is selling.

According to Arkham, Hayes now owns 7.19 million ENA tokens worth over $8.5 million. His other portfolio assets include Ethereum (ETH), Wilder World, Pendle (PENDLE), and Ethena Staked USDe.

Hayes’ selling came a few days after Donald Trump’s World Liberty Finance acquired 741,687 ENA tokens valued at $823,000. Ethena has now proposed a deeper collaboration with WLFI, a move that could see sUSDe integrated in the upcoming DeFi platform. 

The total value locked in Ethena’s ecosystem in the form of USDe stablecoin jumped to over $6 billion for the first time. This growth has made it the third-biggest stablecoin in the crypto industry after Tether and USD Coin. 

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USDe’s growth is mostly because of its strong yield. According to its website, USDe’s stablecoin yields at 12%, much higher than what US government bonds and most dividend ETFs are offering.

Meanwhile, Polymarket users believe that the USDe stablecoin will not lose its $1 peg this year. According to the site, odds of the coin falling below 90 cents. The odds of it losing its peg were almost 20% in May as analysts compared it with Terra.

Ethena also recently launched USDtb, a new stablecoin backed by asset manager BlackRock, which boasts over $11.5 trillion in assets.

Technicals suggest more Ethena price gains

The daily chart shows that the ENA price bottomed at $0.1951 in September and has jumped by 445% to the current $1.0825. The coin has moved above the 50-day moving average and the psychological level at $1.00. 

There are signs that it is forming a cup and handle pattern whose top is at $1.5197. Therefore, a move above this month’s high of $1.3275 will increase the odds of the coin rising to $1.5197, which is about 42% above the current level. 

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