Mystery Institution Moves $34 Million in USDT to Kraken

• On-chain analyst Lookonchain tracked 33.9 million USDT stablecoins withdrawn from Circle and deposited into Kraken.
• The USDT originated as USDC and was swapped and routed to Kraken in two separate transactions.
• Santiment reported a spike in Tether stablecoin activity, with active wallets and exchange deposits reaching multi-month highs.

On-chain analyst Lookonchain recently tracked two wallets withdrawing a combined 33.9 million USDT stablecoins from Circle and depositing them to major U.S. exchange Kraken.

While the entity behind the wallets is unknown, Lookonchain suspects the same institution controls both addresses based on the precise timing of the USDT transfers.

The USDT originated as USDC before getting swapped and routed to Kraken in two separate transactions.

Santiment identified spike in USDT activity

Meanwhile, Santiment noted an overall spike in Tether activity, with active wallets and exchange deposits hitting multi-month highs.

Wallets holding 1 million to 10 million Tether have increased stablecoin purchases. More of the stablecoin appears to be mobilizing in anticipation of crypto buying.

While the motivation behind the mysterious $34 million transfer remains unclear, it exemplifies surging stablecoin activity behind the scenes.

Large OTC deals directly with exchanges allow major players to accumulate crypto without immediately impacting the price. But it often precedes market moves.

If institutional dollars are flowing back into crypto again, brokers like Kraken stand to benefit from OTC desk demand. The on-chain data offers glimpses of building trading interest bubbling beneath the surface.