Analysts highlight ETH USD priming to retest $4,700 – and amidst the pressure of upside down, is the dark money spinning into Ethereum?

The wallet, tied to a $300 million Coinbase scam, bought $18.9 million worth of ether as ETH was torn apart from $4,700 yesterday.

According to LookonChain, the crypto address linked to the “Coinbase Hacker” campaign purchased 3,976 ETH on September 13 for $18.9 million.

Hackers who stole over $300 million #coinbase Users purchased an additional 3,976 $ eth($18.9m) 1 hour ago at $4,756 https://t.co/xgglej7nrd pic.twitter.com/wrxobukk7k

– lookonchain (@lookonchain) September 13, 2025

The purchase, made at an average price of $4,756, came as ether was pushed above $4,700.

Analysts tracking the wallet say that before converting to ETH, the funds were attracting attention with DAIs of 189.11 million. Arkham Intelligence data Before swapping, we present the wallet aggregation DAI in amounts ranging from $80,000 to $6 million.

The address has also been active recently, winning 4,863 ETH and 649 ETH in July, and Solana worth around $8 million in August.

Blockchain Investigator Zachxbt Estimated The broader scheme released at least $330 million from the casualties earlier this year.

2/With me @tanuki42_ We checked Coinbase drawers and collected data from DMS for high confidence theft across various chains.

Below is a table showing $65 million stolen from Coinbase users between December 2024 and January 2025.

Our numbers are probably much lower… pic.twitter.com/zceq5aggyu

– Zachxbt (@zachxbt) February 3, 2025

Called a wide range of social engineering campaigns, this operation targets Coinbase users and maintains the wallet under close surveillance from analysts on the chain.

The latest timing of ETH accumulation has strengthened speculation on ethers in the market rotation.

Traders noted that the wallet movement coincided with ETH/USD’s new momentum, adding weight to the narrative of deep pocket actors moving into assets.

Ethereum Price Analysis: How much higher is the ETH if the $4,700 neckline is rested?

Ethereum shows new strength, with technical signals pointing to breakouts that could send prices to $5,500.

Follow Transaction Data ViewETH trades nearly $4,660, holding above the short-term moving average of the four-hour chart.

(Source – ETH USDT, TradingView))

The 50-EMA is $4,462 and the 100-EMA is $4,421, both facing upwards. This setup suggests that buyers will continue to maintain control despite the minor pullback.

More volume has been seen in recent sessions, supporting movements from the $4,300 range of ETH over $4,650 in just a few days.

The wider structure shows a recovery trend after several weeks of lateral action. Short-term candles reveal signs of fresh purchases, stable demand, following short dips.

Momentum may continue if your ETH holds support above 50-EMA. Otherwise, there is a risk that the price will return to the $4,400-$4,300 zone.

Crypto analyst Titan pointed out the double bottom pattern of Adam & Eve on his daily charts.

(Source – x))

The formation combines a sharp “V” shape low with a round base to indicate a potential inversion. The neckline is below $4,700, close to current levels.

A confirmed breakout in which the neckline projects travel targets measured along historic resistance to $5,500. This adds weight to the view that Ethereum can be set up for a more substantial gathering if pressure is kept.

What are Derivatives saying to us about Ethereum’s next move?

If Ethereum breaks above the neckline, traders could be bullish at $5,500 as their next target. But if that fails, the price could be pulled back to test how solid the recent gatherings are.

The activity of the derivatives indicates an increase in positioning. Coinglass data ETH futures puts a favorable interest of nearly $64 billion, but the funding rate for the final session was stable, hovering about 0.01% in the major exchanges, but not overkill.

(Source – Coinglass))

Spot ETF flow has also been improved. On September 12, Farside investors reported net inflows into US ETH funds after a few days of outflowrefers to fresh institutional demand.

Discover: 9+ Best High Risk, High Reward Cryptographs for Buying in 2025

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So there I was, alone in a diner with the corpse of a man I’ve never met. Before I could get my bearings straight, I heard the police on the scanner announcing that a murder had been called in and they’d be at the diner in 4 minutes. I panicked.

Before I knew it, the body was stashed somewhere I hoped no one would find it. With seconds to spare, I cleaned up my fingerprints, stashed the mystery man’s belongings, and slowly opened the door to greet two officers who had weapons drawn on me.

Just 30 seconds later, I was pronounced innocent and allowed to go on my merry old way. Except, I found that hiding this guy’s corpse was more fun than I had anticipated and, apparently, the universe was giving me an unlimited number of times to replay this scenario. It was like the movie Groundhog Day with a dash of Weekend at Bernie’s thrown in for good measure.

If you hadn’t already guessed it, the game is called Hide the Corpse, and it’s available on the Meta Quest platform for just $15. It’ll give you several hours of dark comedy goodness, and PSVR 2 players will soon get to join in on the fun on August 18 when it launches on the PlayStation Store.

A puzzle game like no other

Hide the Corpse – Official Announcement Trailer – YouTube

Watch On

Hide the Corpse is sort of an elaborate game of reverse hide-and-seek. The game has over half a dozen levels, each with at least six different places to hide the mystery man Gus’s corpse.

Despite what the subject matter might make you think, Hide the Corpse is a strangely family-friendly title that has no foul language, no violence (other than dragging a corpse around, I suppose), and little else that might trigger you to hide its existence in front of your kids.

That, of course, meant that my son and I spent hours laughing until we cried as we struggled to drag around Gus’s insanely heavy corpse without running into the furniture in our real living room. Seriously, it’s a hilariously good time that’s guaranteed to make you laugh.

Dragging Gus around is entirely physics-based, and since he’s supposed to be the weight of an average full-grown adult, that means Gus is quite challenging to move around. Even more so given that you only have four minutes to somehow bring him to a legit hiding spot and cram him into whatever dimensions said spot allows.

The intro level takes place in an apartment where you can hide Gus in strangely conspicuous places like the bathtub, the armoire, under the bed, and three other spots I don’t want to ruin. You’d think the cops would find him in these places, but they’re, thankfully, no Sherlock Holmes.

The goal is to just hide Gus’s corpse from plain sight, a goal that becomes zanier and zanier as you progress through the levels. And I promise that you never realized how heavy a corpse could be in zero gravity until you get to the space level!

Gus isn’t the only object you’ll need to hide, though. The man somehow has several of his belongings scattered randomly in each level, including his comb, wallet, favorite record (this is 70s themed), driver’s license, and a few other nicknacks. Each of these also needs to be hidden from plain sight to get the best score.

Oh, and don’t forget to erase every single one of the fingerprints you left along the way. Seriously, those little blue fingerprints appear on anything you’ve touched, even if you didn’t realize you’d touched it. It’s an almost overwhelming amount of stuff to do in just four minutes, but it results in some gratifying gameplay in a short span.

When the time is up, either at the four-minute mark or when you open the door for the cops, you’ll get graded on your performance. I’m not sure who grades someone on their ability to hide a corpse, but I hope I never run across them in real life.

Once you find enough hiding spots in each level, you’ll unlock a new level to play in. The scenarios are incredibly varied, ranging from the apartment you start in to the diner I spoke of earlier, a zero-gravity space station, an art museum, and more. The latest update in mid-July added a ton of new modifiers, including a heavier Gus and the ability to double the hiding time.

Alone or with friends, it’s a riot

While it’s a single-player game, I found it to be the most fun when casting the gameplay to a TV while others in the room were watching. This always elicited people asking to try it and then spending multiple sessions in the game until someone pried the headset from their cold, not-dead hands. Definitely not dead. That only happens in the game.

It’s the kind of zany, whimsical, unique fun that I love seeing from indie developers and a reminder of the late 90s and early 2000s era of gaming, where just about any theme or concept could make a game, no matter how surreal or ridiculous. Plus, at just $15, it’s tough to say no to for a few fantastic hours of entertainment with friends and family.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved $126,000,000 in refunds to be sent to 969,173 Fortnite players as part of a settlement over allegations that Epic Games tricked users into making unwanted purchases.

At the same time, the agency has reopened the claims portal for eligible Fortnite players to submit refund claims, which will be examined for the third round of refunds.

This latest development marks the second phase of the settlement the FTC reached with Epic Games in December 2022, in which the company agreed to pay $520 million to settle allegations of violating children’s privacy laws and using dark patterns to trick millions into making unintentional in-game purchases.

These so-called patterns included:

• Displaying confusing purchase prompts
• Promoting misleading offers
• Allowing underage account holders to make purchases without parental consent
• Charging players unintentionally by waking the game from sleep mode, during the loading screen, or while they attempted to preview an in-game items

These charges occurred without additional confirmation, and those attempting to dispute and reverse them had to go through a complex process that made it likely for them to give up prematurely.

In some cases, these users were blocked from accessing their very accounts before the payment was reversed.

The first round of refunds occurred in December 2024, during which $72,000,000 was distributed among 629,344 eligible Fortnite players.

The average reimbursement in the first round was $114, while in the second, the figure has been raised to $130.

As previously happened, consumers whose reimbursement claims have been approved will be given 90 days to cash their checks or 30 days if they opt to use PayPal as the redemption method.

A dedicated phone line and support email were also set up by Rust Consulting Inc., which handles the refund process.

If you have performed Fortnite purchases between January 2017 and September 2022 that fall into the category of ‘dark patterns’ as those were defined by the FTC, you are invited to submit a claim through this portal until July 9, 2025.

Claimants must be at least 18 years old to complete a claim form. However, parents or guardians can do it on their behalf.

More information about FTC refunds in general is available on this FAQ page.

Telegram-based dark markets rapidly filled the gap left by Huione Guarantee after the $27 billion marketplace disappeared on May 13, according to a June 23 Elliptic report.

Elliptic noted that Telegram banned thousands of Huione Guarantee channels and usernames once researchers traced billions of USDT-denominated sales to pig-butchering scams. However, data shows that merchants immediately moved to Tudou Guarantee, a rival in which Huione owns a 30% stake.

On-chain data recorded incoming USDT at Huione falling to near zero after the ban, while Tudou’s user count more than doubled, with inflows matching Huione’s pre-shutdown volumes.

Guarantee markets operate in Chinese on Telegram and settle exclusively in USDT. Vendors supply stolen data, money laundering pathways, and other services essential to large-scale online fraud. 

The escrow model lets buyers and sellers resolve disputes without exposing real identities, and Tether’s dollar peg eliminates local currency volatility.

Distinct payment rail from Huione Pay

Observers sometimes confuse Huione Guarantee with Huione Pay, a Cambodia-based payment firm still processing large USDT volumes. 

Elliptic separated the two through wallet analysis and noted that Huione Pay’s traffic remained high even after FinCEN labeled the parent Huione Group “a financial institution of primary money laundering concern” and proposed cutting its US access.

Elliptic tracked more than 30 active Guarantee markets and warned about fake venues that target inexperienced criminals. 

Tudou led the post-shutdown surge, but smaller competitors also gained users as merchants duplicated listings across platforms.

Ecosystem adapts to channel bans

The closure of the Huione Guarantee sent temporary shock waves through a network of hundreds of thousands of scammers, intermediaries, and brokers across Southeast Asia and China. 

Elliptic’s data showed no enduring decline in overall Guarantee-market volume one month later, indicating that liquidity migrated swiftly to replacement channels.

The report concluded that coordinated, sustained, removals will be required to disrupt an ecosystem built on Telegram escrow and USDT settlements. 

Huione Guarantee’s downfall disrupted one node, but the broader dark market structure continues to expand within the messaging app.

Mentioned in this article

An international law enforcement effort has dismantled one of the world’s largest and longest-running criminal marketplaces on the darknet, arresting its suspected German operator in Spain and seizing millions in illicit assets, according to a June 16 press release.

The takedown, coordinated by the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor’s Office, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the Spanish National Police, the Dutch National Police, and additional partners in Sweden and Romania, targeted the illicit platform known as “Archetyp Market.”

Infrastructure seized in raid

A 30-year-old German citizen was captured at his residence in Barcelona on June 11 by a Spanish police tactical unit.

Prosecutors allege he operated Archetyp Market with other moderators, enabling large-scale trafficking of drugs including amphetamine, cannabis, fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.

Investigators estimate the site generated more than €250 million ($267 million) in sales, with around 17,000 active listings, over 612,000 customer accounts, and about 3,200 registered vendors.

Transactions on the website relied exclusively on Monero (XMR), a privacy-focused cryptocurrency favored in darknet trades.

Authorities searched the suspect’s apartment in Barcelona and properties in Hannover, Germany and in Bucharest, Romania. They seized eight mobile phones, four computers, 34 storage devices, and assets totaling about €7.8 million ($8.3 million).

Meanwhile, the Dutch National Police located and disabled the marketplace’s server infrastructure in a data center in the Netherlands, cutting off access worldwide.

Wider arrests

Further raids took place across Germany and Sweden in coordinated actions against moderators and vendors affiliated with the market.

Law enforcement searched 20 additional properties, including sites in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Hesse, and Baden-Württemberg, and arrested seven suspects in Sweden.

In total, the operation netted 47 smartphones, 45 computers and notebooks, various narcotics, and more illicit proceeds linked to the platform’s activities. The substantial trove of data seized is expected to provide new leads as investigations continue.

The main suspect faces charges of operating a large-scale narcotics trafficking ring under German law, carrying severe penalties if convicted.

The shutdown of Archetyp Market marks another major success in a string of global efforts to curb cybercrime, dismantle darknet infrastructure, and disrupt digital money laundering networks in recent years.

Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao proposed creating a dark pool perpetual swap decentralized exchange (DEX) to prevent market manipulation.

In a June 1 X post, Zhao said that he has “always been puzzled with the fact that everyone can see your orders in real-time on a DEX.”

“The problem is worse on a perp DEX where there are liquidations,” he said.

Zhao added, “If you’re looking to purchase $1 billion worth of a coin, you generally wouldn’t want others to notice your order until it’s completed.” This is to prevent front-running and maximum extractable value (MEV) bot attacks, which can result in increased slippage, worse prices and higher costs.

His comments follow the liquidation of nearly $100 million in Bitcoin long positions on Hyperliquid reportedly held by a trader known as James Wynn. The event, which occurred after Bitcoin fell below $105,000, sparked claims on X that some users had coordinated to “hunt” Wynn’s liquidation.

One X user claimed that Tron co-founder Justin Sun showed interest in participating, but the claim remains unconfirmed. He also went so far as to invite Eric Trump, the son of the United States’ President Donald Trump, to the group.

Related: Financial freedom means stopping crypto MEV attacks — Shutter Network contributor

What are dark pools?

Zhao said that “large traders in TradFi use dark pools, often 10 times bigger” than traditional, transparent pools. Dark pools are private trading venues where large orders are hidden from public view until after they are executed.

This prevents front-running, slippage and MEV attacks by concealing order size, price and intent. Still, implementing decentralized dark pools would require complex systems such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) or delayed settlement mechanisms.

Maria Carola, CEO of instant exchange StealthEX, told Cointelegraph that “the fundamental challenge in building a dark pool-style perp DEX is achieving both privacy and verifiability.” She noted that ZK-proofs and encrypted order matching are promising avenues for development. She added:

“I think one concrete approach is leveraging zk-SNARKs or zk-STARKs to validate trade execution and settlement without revealing trade details.“

The obstacles are not just technical in nature. Carola highlighted that “launching an onchain dark pool, especially for perpetuals, enters a complex regulatory landscape.”

Related: Protecting Web3 users’ integrity by preventing malicious MEV — Here’s how

Trade privacy is critical to derivatives

Zhao argued that privacy is particularly important in derivatives markets. He said public visibility of liquidation levels exposes large traders to coordinated attacks that could force premature liquidation:

“If others can see your liquidation point, they could try to push the market to liquidate you. Even if you got a billion dollars, others can gang up on you.“

The Binance co-founder admitted that there are counter-arguments to such designs, with the added transparency potentially allowing market makers to absorb large orders. He said that this is “possibly true.”

“I won’t get into an argument on which is right or wrong. Different traders may prefer different types of markets,“ he said.

StealthEX’s Carola added that “opacity is a double-edged sword,” noting that it reduces front-running, but “also obscures manipulation attempts, especially in a leveraged environment.” “To address this, a ‘dark’ perp DEX must implement adaptive risk engines and behavioral anomaly detection, ideally with cryptographic accountability baked in,“ she said.

Zhao concluded by encouraging developers to launch an onchain dark pool decentralized exchange with perpetual swaps. He said this could be achieved “either by not showing the orderbook, or even better, not showing deposits into smart contracts at all, or until much later.”

Magazine: How crypto bots are ruining crypto, including auto memecoin rug pulls

]]> https://earlybirdsinvest.com/binance-co-founder-cz-proposes-dark-pool-dexs-to-tackle-manipulation/feed/ 0 39699 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/crypto-pundit-debunks-100000-xrp-dark-pool-theory/ https://earlybirdsinvest.com/crypto-pundit-debunks-100000-xrp-dark-pool-theory/#respond Sat, 03 May 2025 05:05:10 +0000 https://earlybirdsinvest.com/crypto-pundit-debunks-100000-xrp-dark-pool-theory/

In a video released on Thursday, crypto commentator Zach Rector dismantled a viral claim—popularized by influencer Jake Clover—that XRP tokens are secretly changing hands for $100,000 apiece inside clandestine “dark pools.” Rector’s rebuttal aims to calm newcomers spooked by the rumor and to re-center the discussion on verifiable market mechanics rather than conspiratorial price-suppression narratives.

XRP OTC Deals Aren’t Market Manipulation

Rector opens the broadcast by calling the thesis “a new round of misinformation and FUD,” stressing that “institutions are [not] going to get XRP at $100,000 on the private ledger. That’s not happening.” He explains that what social-media accounts now label “dark pools” are simply over-the-counter (OTC) desks—private bilateral venues that large holders have used for decades in equities, foreign exchange and, more recently, digital assets.

“It’s nothing new or specific to XRP,” he says, adding that Ripple Labs has been off-loading part of its treasury via OTC since 2019 without depressing the open-market price. Indeed, XRP has “pumped tremendously since November,” Rector notes, even as Ripple distributed fresh supply to institutional counterparties.

Much of Clover’s allegation hinges on the idea that a separate, private version of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) carries its own price—orders of magnitude above the public market’s. Rector calls that notion a fundamental misunderstanding of how Ripple’s enterprise tooling works.

Central-bank or government pilots often ask for “private ledgers where they can keep messaging and transactions hidden from the public view,” he acknowledges, but those environments are permissioned sidechains or wrapped derivatives. “XRP only exists on the public XRP Ledger that we all use […]. Your XRP can never leave the XRP Ledger,” he states. If testers wanted to model a six-figure price for stress-testing purposes, “that’s not the real XRP, never was, never would be.”

To underscore the point, Rector cites Ripple chief technology officer David Schwartz, who “has already addressed this” and clarified that “there are not two prices of XRP.” Rector also invokes examples from other enterprise-focused chains—XDC’s hybrid architecture and Constellation’s Department of Defense “Metagraph” deployment—to show that privacy partitions are standard practice, not evidence of hidden liquidity at surreal valuations.

OTC Buyers Get A Discount

While some retail traders fear that Wall Street would happily pay an astronomical premium behind closed doors, Rector argues the economics are inverted: “Why would an institution pay $10,000 per XRP on the private ledger […] when it’s available on the public market for $2?” OTC desks exist precisely so that whales can accumulate “without moving the market,” not to overpay.

In fact, history shows that Ripple has often granted institutional partners a discount, not a markup—something revealed in discovery during the SEC vs. Ripple lawsuit. Rector reminds viewers that Ripple’s data set includes “over 1,700 NDAs” and that R3 once negotiated an option to buy five billion XRP “for a sub-penny” over three years, ultimately settling for a single billion when the broader partnership soured. None of those figures approach the six-figure fantasy.

At press time, XRP traded at $2.21.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

The recent stagnation in XRP’s spot price may owe less to waning market interest than to a surge in off-exchange trading, according to crypto pundit and Digital Ascension Group managing director Jake Claver. In a 23-post thread published on X, the commentator argued that “dark pools are an invisible force … holding prices stable,” even as institutional demand accelerates.

Claver’s thread—viewed more than 250,000 times within 48 hours—posits that private liquidity venues are absorbing large buy orders that would otherwise inflate the public order book. “So what’s a dark pool, exactly? Picture trying to buy $500 million worth of XRP without tipping off the market,” he wrote. “Dark pools are private spots where huge orders get filled off the main exchanges.”

XRP Price Rigged?

The pundit described the mechanism as a “double-edged sword.” In the near term, he contends, clandestine accumulation “hides bullish momentum and drags prices down,” leaving retail traders to conclude that the asset has lost steam. Over a longer horizon, however, the same process allegedly tightens circulating supply until, he warned, “the dam bursts.”

Related Reading

“Institutions are quietly draining liquidity from public exchanges,” Claver asserted, adding that hedge funds, family offices and even sovereign entities have begun using dark-pool facilities now offered by major exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken, as well as emerging decentralized alternatives. Because transactions are reported only after execution, he argued, “smart money doesn’t leave a trail.”

Claver suggested that XRP is a prime beneficiary of this covert activity. In his view, pending regulatory clarity and enterprise-level adoption could coincide with dwindling float, leading to an abrupt repricing. “At a certain point, demand on public exchanges will explode past supply — and that’s when the market will panic to reprice itself. Get ready for a potential 2×, 3×, even 5× sprint,” he wrote. Should the hidden bid exhaust available inventory, “the price gaps straight up … charts will look like someone flipped a switch.”

Related Reading

He underscored the psychological dimension of a prolonged flat tape: “These are the stretches where even the die-hard believers start doubting and walk away. But if you hang tight, you might just catch what comes next.” Comparing dark-pool activity to a “pressure cooker,” Claver added, “They bottle up all that buying pressure now, but eventually, the lid blows off.” Concluding his thread, he urged patience: “Stay locked in. When the dam breaks, you’ll be grateful you bought at 50 cents instead of scrambling to buy at $10.”

Is There Proof?

Market data do indicate muted volatility in XRP, which has traded in a narrow corridor around $2.00 for much of April despite a succession of positive fundamentals and news from Ripple. Whether dark-pool activity is the decisive variable, however, remains unverified; most over-the-counter (OTC) trading is reported only in aggregated form, and no public ledger tracks the size of institutional flows Claver describes.

Claver offered no documentary evidence for the alleged scale of purchasing, and his analysis stops short of quantifying volumes. Nevertheless, his thread reinforces a familiar narrative in crypto markets: that price calm on the surface may belie deep currents of accumulation below. For retail spectators, the question is whether those unseen currents will indeed surface as the “vertical” move Claver envisions—​or remain, like most dark-pool orders, permanently out of sight.

At press time, XRP traded at $2.21.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com