The Ethereum whale burned 2,500 ETH and shocked the ETH community. What's going on?
A mysterious whale with the Ethereum address "nd4.eth" sent $4.5 million worth of Ether (2,500 ETH) to a "burn" address, taking the tokens out of circulation forever. This intriguing incident has sparked debate - who is this mysterious whale?
The incident came to light on Aug. 6, when blockchain analyst "degeneratewisdom" tweeted the question: "Can anyone here explain this transaction to me? Looks like nd4.eth sent 2500 ETH to a defunct address .doesn't look like a rookie mistake either." The tweet shone the spotlight on a massive 2,500 ETH transfer by nd4.eth to an inactive address, sparking criticism within the crypto community about this deliberate and seemingly well-thought-out move. speculation about the underlying intent behind it.
The concept of "burning" tokens is to send tokens to an address, making the tokens permanently unusable, thereby reducing the overall supply of a particular cryptocurrency. However, the reasons behind nd4.eth's decision to wipe out such a large amount of ETH remain elusive. To dig deeper into the incident, analysts from on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain revealed more details about the people behind nd4.eth.
“The person who transferred 2,500 $ETH ($4.58 million) to a dead address on July 26 was a whale with 34,287 $GMX ($1.84 million) and 311,003 $GNS ($1.43 million). He spent July 29 5,330 $DAI bought $GMX and $GNS and moved 34.9 $GMX ($1,989) and 600 $GNX ($2,733) to dead addresses,” Lookonchain wrote on Monday.
While the crypto community is still speculating about the reason for the "$4.5 million burn," there is no doubt that the "nd4.eth" address, for whatever reason, has contributed to the growth of the Ethereum ecosystem.
His actions also furthered the narrative of Ethereum as a "super currency." Wildcat Protocol creator Laurence Day jokingly praised the man, saying, “If you woke up this morning without thanking nd4.eth for its contribution to the ultrasonic money narrative, I want you to think hard Describe what you want to achieve here."
Indeed, token burning is deflationary, usually to reduce the token’s circulating supply, helping stimulate demand and increasing its market value.
(Data source: Scott Matherson, Newton Gitonga)