The transfer occurred a day before the first spot Ether ETFs in the United States are expected to start trading on July 23.
Grayscale transferred $1 billion worth of Ether to Coinbase on July 22, signaling the asset manager’s preparation for the launch of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States, according to blockchain data.
Following the transfer, approximately 10% of the 292,000 Ether (ETH) was transferred from the Coinbase hot wallet to the Grayscale Mini Trust, or wallet “0xab3,” according to a July 23 X post by data provider iChaininfo.
The billion-dollar transfer came a day before the launch of the first batch of US-based spot Ether ETFs, which will begin trading on July 23. The large transfers suggest that Grayscale is pre-seeding funds to prepare for the ETF launch.