Ceffu’s 120M USDC withdrawal from Ethena puts custody rails in focus

An on-chain transfer has become a hot topic in the crypto world this Monday, August 24. According to blockchain tracker Onchain Lens, institutional custodian Ceffu has pulled out 120 million USDC worth from wallets associated with Ethena, which is behind the protocol for USDe valued at $4 billion or more.

In a market where institutions seem to prefer using third-party custodians to hold their collateral instead of keeping it on exchanges directly, the transfer points to the framework that sustains that practice.

The synthetic dollar of Ethena is built on hedged investments and off-exchange settlement providers that protect the collateral received. When $120 million is processed within this framework in just one day, those who have USDe or use it as collateral should be concerned.

Six transfers over a single day

According to Onchain Lens, Ceffu has withdrawn 120 million USDC from Ethena’s Coinbase Prime custody wallets via six different transactions made in the last day. The most recent transaction reportedly involved transferring 30 million USDC about six hours before the post was published. The transaction can be traced to the wallet designated as 0x0066…1049.

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