Alameda Was Behind Sales That Accelerated $stETH Depeg Last Year

In the middle of last year, $stETH went through a depeg incident. Six months later, Alameda/SBF is again being accused of being linked to the address that sold off $stETH at the time.

Celsius users began a redemption run after it was revealed on June 6, 2022 that over $70 million was lost in the theft of the hosting platform Stakehound one year earlier. But Celsius was unable to meet the redemption demand, as 73% of Celsius' $ETH was locked in $stETH or ETH2 Staking, so Celsius was forced to sell its $stETH in the secondary market Curve. And then a giant whale pulled out nearly 50,000 $stETH on June 8, further fueling the market panic. Four days after the giant whale dumped $stETH, Celsius announced that it had stopped withdrawals.

Today, PeckShieldAlert tweeted that it monitored 3 unknown wallets withdrawing 63,860 $stETH (~$90 million) from FTX during May and June last year, converting them to $ETH and then transferring them to FTX when the $stETH/$ETH price dropped to a low. Meanwhile, on June 11, 2022 two addresses withdrew 49,000 $stETH from FTX and converted it to 42,000 $ETH, then transferred to FTX.

Meanwhile, Coinbase product manager Conor Grogan tweeted that it was Alameda that played a key role in last year's $stETH depeg event. While there was not enough on-chain evidence at the time to suggest that the addresses that pulled $stETH were related to Alameda/SBF. But they all sent $ETH and $stETH to the FTX estate in January of this year. So it's safe to assume that Alameda/SBF owns them.

Interestingly, Zhu Su, the founder of the bankrupt Three Arrows Capital, tweeted on January 3 that DCG and FTX conspired to attack $stETH with considerable success.