Did Donald Trump Dump More Than 1,000 ETH?

Indeed, Donald Trump's ETH balance dropped from nearly 500 to just under 6 between January 22 and press time on February 6.

President Donald Trump and his family have been using the inauguration to launch multiple thematic meme coins, and Finbold’s examination of on-chain data to determine the current state of the President’s cryptocurrency portfolio has revealed significant outflows of Ethereum (ETH) and wrapped Ethereum (wETH) from Trump’s personal crypto address.

Indeed, Donald Trump’s ETH balance dropped from nearly 500 to just under 6 between January 22 and press time on February 6.

A closer examination showed that in the afternoon of January 23, the address, which is identified as the President’s main cryptocurrency portfolio, received about 513 Ethereum from another wallet, which is linked to non-fungible token (NFT) proceeds.

Minutes later, more than 1,000 ETH was either transferred to an intermediary address or a centralized exchange reception wallet before being forwarded to a Coinbase Prime hot wallet.

The two transactions occurred within 10 minutes of each other, according to Etherscan data, with the first likely being a test involving 1 ETH and the other being the main transfer of 1,004 ETH, minus the fee.

There’s a limit to the traceability for most on-chain analysis when a cryptocurrency, ETH in this case, enters an exchange wallet like Coinbase Prime due to the pooling and mixing of assets.

At this point, Trump’s ETH is mixed with Coinbase Prime’s holdings, and its individual path becomes more difficult to track further unless there is a similar outbound transaction matching his deposit.

While no wrongdoing can be alleged based on the transactions alone, and the current state of the hot wallet Ethereum can’t be determined based on the on-chain data, the rapid rise and the value of Trump family meme coins, paired with a February 3 Eric Trump X post that said ‘in my opinion, it’s a great time to add ETH,’ raises some uncomfortable questions.

In my opinion, it’s a great time to add $ETH.

Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that on the evening of February 4, on-chain insights platform Spot On Chain revealed that World Liberty Financial, a company in which Donald Trump is listed as the ‘chief crypto advocate,’ Barron Trump as ‘DeFi visionary,’ and Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. as ‘Web3 ambassadors,’ is moving vast amounts of cryptocurrency.

World Liberty Financial (@worldlibertyfi) moved $307.41M in 8 assets to #CoinbasePrime 6 hours ago—as part of treasury management and business operations.

Shortly after, the project unstaked 19,423 $stETH to $ETH and further spent 5M $USDC to buy 1,826 $ETH at $2,738.… https://t.co/Rp9NAFUs5N pic.twitter.com/5bfIvJma7U

Specifically, the firm transferred more than $300 million worth of 8 cryptocurrencies to Coinbase Prime just hours before the X post was made. Along with Ethereum, Bitcoin is among the moved assets.

Late on February 5, Eric Trump endorsed BTC in an X post that said: ‘Feels like a great time to enter BTC!’

The social media statement also featured a rocket—an emoji that’s associated with the ‘to the moon’ meme—and included a mention of World Liberty Financial.

Feels like a great time to enter #BTC! 🚀 @worldlibertyfi

Finally, despite the sequence of events raising uncomfortable questions, it is worth pointing out that the exact movement of the cryptocurrency and its state at press time is difficult to determine, and World Liberty issued a statement already on February 3 explaining that any observed transactions are ‘part of regular treasury management, and payment of fees and expenses and to address working capital requirement.’

We’re making routine movements of our crypto holdings as part of regular treasury management, and payment of fees and expenses and to address working capital requirements. To be clear, we are not selling tokens—we are simply reallocating assets for ordinary business purposes.…

The company also stressed that it is ‘not selling tokens’ and that it is ‘intended to be part of maintaining a strong, secure, and efficient treasury.’ World Liberty Financial also urged the public not to speculate.

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