According to reports on X by major DeFi trackers, Justin Sun has initiated a withdrawal request of over 50,000 ETH from the Lido Finance platform.
It is a sum of approximately 210 million dollars, which puts cryptocurrency investors on alert given the possibility of a bull or bear event.
The loot is currently in queue and it will take a few more days before the resources can actually be withdrawn.
Let’s see all the details below.
Summary
Justin Sun requests the withdrawal of 52,905 ETH from Lido Finance
As the on-chain data shows, Justin Sun made a withdrawal request of 52,905 ETH a few hours ago on the liquid staking platform Lido Finance.
This move has attracted the attention of the market, especially considering that the founder of Tron had accumulated a total of 392,474 ETH between February and August 2024.
In total, the investment of Sun, which has accrued interest for nearly 6,000 ETH at a rate of 3%, amounts to about 1.19 billion dollars.
The new unstake request, which is worth approximately 210 million dollars, comes at a market time when the price of Ethereum has shown a strong bull performance.
Currently, the net profit of the entrepreneur amounts to 349 million dollars, with a calculated increase of 29%.
As indicated in the official documentation of Lido Finance, withdrawal requests must undergo a variable waiting time before they can proceed to the claim.
In jargon, it is said that the requests are in queue, meaning they are in line waiting for the validators to complete their validation cycle
The time required for the “fulfillment” of the request can vary from 1 to 5 days. This time depends on the amount of stETH requested, the total amount of stETH in the queue, and other operational factors.
The wait also helps to strengthen the security of Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake, preventing massive exits from the central system of the blockchain.
According to what was reported by Dune Analytics, Justin Sun’s request will have to wait about 76 hours before being able to execute the redemption of the ETH.
At this moment, we find in queue 116,837 ETH, for an equivalent value of 456 million dollars.
Source: https://dune.com/lido/lido-v2
The activity and portfolio of the founder of Tron: focus on the Lido Finance platform
As mentioned, Justin Sun has been a major user of staking on Ethereum through Lido Finance.
In the midst of the hunt for yields in DeFi between February and August 2024, the head of Tron utilized 3 different wallets, accumulating 392,474 ETH.
Its strong activity has contributed negatively to the centralization of Lido, which still today boasts a very high market share in the liquid staking sector.
The deposit phase occurred while the cryptocurrency was being traded within the 2,500-4,000 dollar trading range, both in bull and bear phases.
As for the withdrawals, the last-minute one was not the only request made by Sun.
In October 2023, the billionaire unlocked as much as 80,251 ETH, worth 131 million dollars, which were then transferred to the Binance exchange.
In total now, counting the sum of 52,905 ETH in queue, its position on Lido Finance accounts for 259,619 ETH, which is just over 100 million dollars.
This figure differs significantly from the value of his holdings, which as shown by Akrham amounts to 106,827 stETH.
His main portfolio amounts to 2.1 billion dollars, still in a strong drawdown compared to the top of 7 billion dollars recorded in September 2021.
It will be interesting to monitor Sun’s upcoming on-chain movements and see if he will remove the entire stake from Lido Finance or if he will return to deposit new resources.
Source: https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/entity/justin-sun
Will the news have a negative impact on the price of ETH?
The recent withdrawal request by Sun has raised concerns regarding the volatility of the market and the impact on the price of Ethereum.
Some analysts believe that his actions may introduce short-term pressure on the price of Ethereum, given the large size of the position.
In the past, when in October the founder of Tron withdrew 80,251 ETH from Lido, the cryptocurrency fell by 5% in a few days.
Making a simple comparison, if the current withdrawal request had the same impact, it would cause a dump of 3.29% on the price of ETH.
It is not confirmed, however, that Sun will decide to sell its holdings in Ethereum, even if it would justify a similar withdrawal.
Usually, when in the past it has decided to behave like a bear, investors have followed in its footsteps in the short term.
At the beginning of the month, the entrepreneur sold 29,929 ETH, valued at approximately 119.7 million dollars, triggering a small retracement from the local top of 4,000 dollars.
Analysts are wondering if, in a context of a bull market like this, the withdrawal event will trigger a downward phase in the price of the second currency in the market.
It is not excluded that the bull will decide to react by continuing the upward run that has characterized the last weeks of crypto trading.
Ethereum has recorded an increase of 27% on a monthly basis with a parallel increase in trading volume of 11%. Furthermore, since December the open interest in Ethereum futures has increased by 5%, indicating a strong confidence from investors.
Given the general outlook of the market, it is unlikely that this news could create a strongly negative impact.
Also consider that the news has already been partially priced in by the markets, which today are in the red by 0.83% on the price of ETH.
