Three Wallets Withdraw $122M In Ethereum From FalconX And Kraken: Is Tom Lee Buying Again?

Ethereum is struggling below $1,700 as the market faces a combination of apathy and uncertainty that has made sustained directional movement difficult to produce in either direction. The price is grinding — not breaking down aggressively but equally failing to generate the momentum needed to reclaim higher levels — and data from Arkham Intelligence has identified a cluster of large institutional withdrawals that adds a structural layer to the current setup worth examining carefully.

Three whale addresses — two of them freshly created wallets with no prior transaction history — have withdrawn a combined $122.29 million in Ethereum from FalconX and Kraken. The scale of the withdrawal is significant. The venue combination is notable. FalconX is a regulated institutional prime brokerage serving some of the most sophisticated participants in digital asset markets, while Kraken is one of the most established and most scrutinized exchanges in the ecosystem.

Ethereum Whale Transfers | Source: Arkham

The creation of fresh wallets for withdrawals of this scale is the behavioral detail that carries the most analytical weight. Institutional participants creating new addresses specifically for large withdrawals typically do so to maintain operational security, separate treasury positions from trading activity, or establish dedicated holding infrastructure for assets intended for long-term custody rather than near-term trading.

$122 million in Ethereum leaving institutional venues and moving into freshly created wallets during a period of market apathy does not describe participants preparing to sell. It describes participants who have made a decision about Ethereum at current prices — and have created the infrastructure to hold that decision for an extended period.

Down 9 Million and Still Withdrawing

The Arkham data adds a layer that transforms the withdrawal from a routine institutional movement into a statement about conviction under pressure. One of the addresses involved in the current withdrawal cluster previously purchased Ethereum and is currently sitting on an unrealized loss of approximately $9.1 million on that position. The market has moved against the trade — and the response is not to reduce exposure or exit at a smaller loss. The response is to withdraw more $ETH from exchanges into custody.

Ethereum Whale position | Source: Arkham

Arkham has raised the question of whether the address is connected to Tom Lee — and the behavioral profile is consistent with what Bitmine has been executing publicly. The company has been systematically building toward a 5% Ethereum supply target, currently holding approximately $9.32 billion worth of $ETH at 4.59% of circulating supply, with approximately $819.86 million in additional purchases still required to reach that threshold.

A participant sitting on a $9.1 million unrealized loss who responds by withdrawing more $ETH from institutional venues rather than cutting the position is expressing the same long-term thesis that Bitmine’s entire treasury strategy represents. The loss is present and acknowledged. The direction of the next action is unchanged.

For Ethereum below $1,700 under market apathy, that behavioral pattern — institutional-scale participants absorbing unrealized losses and continuing to accumulate rather than capitulating — is the structural signal that the price chart is not yet reflecting but that the on-chain data is documenting in real time.