DYDX price expected to fall further as whales dump tokens after massive unlock event

DYDX, the native token of a decentralized exchange, unlocked 150 million tokens, worth $485 million, early on Friday. Following the event, large wallet investors sent their holdings to centralized and decentralized exchanges. This increases selling pressure on the asset, supporting a bearish thesis for price. 

Also read: Bitcoin less than 21,000 blocks away from fourth halving, financial advisors await Spot ETF approval

DYDX token unlock complete, asset reserves on exchanges climb

The asset’s climbing reserves on exchanges have a direct impact on the selling pressure and thereby the price of the token. A rise in the token’s reserves on exchanges negatively influences asset prices. 

DYDX tokens have started flooding exchanges in large numbers, as noted by on-chain data tracker Spot on Chain. Three whale wallets that received DYDX tokens from the dYdX Foundation Wallet have transferred 6.81 million tokens worth $21.46 million to Binance.

Interestingly, DYDX tokens that were unlocked and distributed to investors who bridged the tokens, meaning, sent them to the native dYdX chain, will not be able to sell them on centralized exchanges. This is expected to keep selling pressure from hitting a peak. 

For example, a16z, an investor in dYdX has bridged 42.69 million DYDX tokens and when unlocked, the investor won’t be able to sell these assets. For the investor to sell these assets, a centralized exchange needs to announce support for the dYdX chain.

However, there are whale-wallet investors that have not chosen to bridge their holdings and these tokens are likely hitting exchange wallets, like the $21.46 million worth of assets that were sent to Binance by the wallet addresses that received unlocked tokens on December 1.

The data tracker identified 6.25 million DYDX deposits, worth $20 million to Binance, within a 45 minute timeframe, early on Friday.

The following deposits/sales were made on Binance:

• Whale wallet address 0xb0d deposited 5.63 million DYDX tokens worth $18.01 million
• QCP Capital deposited 391,035 DYDX worth $1.26 million
• Golda.eth wallet address 0x6d0 sold 87,174 DYDX tokens worth $280,829
• Wallet address 0xFAD sold 66,000 DYDX tokens worth $210,173
• Wallet address 0x17b sold 75,000 DYDX tokens worth $237,184

According to data from Santiment, 7.75 million DYDX tokens entered centralized and decentralized exchanges on Friday, represented by a large spike.

Exchange flow balance DYDX and price

DYDX price is $3.099, at the time of writing. The asset suffered nearly 5% decline in its price on Binance, in the past 24 hours.