FTX- and Alameda-linked wallets move up to $75M in ether to Wintermute

Wallets labeled as belonging to the FTX bankruptcy estate and Alameda Research transferred as much as 27,373 ether — worth roughly $75 million at the time — to crypto market maker Wintermute on Wednesday, according to on-chain data cited by CoinDesk. What the transfer is for has not been established.

The two on-chain analysts CoinDesk relied on give different totals, and the gap is worth stating plainly. PeckShield's alert (PeckShieldAlert on X) flagged a single transfer of 23,639 ether, about $65 million, from an Alameda/FTX-estate-labeled address to a Wintermute wallet early Wednesday. Analyst EmberCN, tracing the movements on the Arkham platform, counted six wallets sending a combined 27,372 ether to Wintermute. The most likely reconciliation, per CoinDesk: PeckShield caught the largest single transaction while EmberCN tallied several. The biggest leg — 23,639 ether — went to an address labeled "Wintermute" on Etherscan.

That is the extent of what the chain shows. Sending a large position to a market maker or OTC desk can signal an intent to sell or hedge without dumping directly onto an exchange order book. But the data does not show that Wintermute sold the ether, nor that the transfer was tied to creditor repayments. Wintermute could hold the coins as inventory, hedge, or work a sale over time.

The timing sits against the FTX Recovery Trust's ongoing creditor-distribution program. In March the trust made a planned $2.2 billion payout, its fourth distribution under the Chapter 11 plan. FTX and Alameda wallets have moved assets during the multi-year wind-down before.

Key facts

• Up to 27,373 ether (~$75M) moved to a Wintermute wallet Wednesday — EmberCN, via Arkham (CoinDesk).
• Single largest leg: 23,639 ether (~$65M) — PeckShieldAlert (CoinDesk).
• No on-chain evidence of a sale or of a link to creditor repayments (CoinDesk).
• FTX Recovery Trust's fourth distribution, $2.2B, was planned for March (CoinDesk).
• Wintermute did not respond to CoinDesk; the FTX Recovery Trust has made no public statement.

The real-world read

Treat this as a movement, not a sale. The headline number ($75M) is EmberCN's aggregate; PeckShield's is $65M for one transaction — the range is real, so cite it as a range, not a fact. Neither figure tells you the coins hit the market. The "could indicate plans to sell or hedge" framing is inference from a wallet label, not a confirmed transaction, and neither Wintermute nor the trust has said anything. Anyone connecting this to the March creditor payout is guessing until the trust confirms it — and it hasn't.

One housekeeping note: CoinDesk's page carried a sponsored "Stablecoin Landscape" report promoting Ripple's RLUSD. That's marketing, unrelated to this story, and plays no part here.

Opinion, and whose

The read that a market-maker transfer "could indicate plans to sell or hedge" is CoinDesk's characterization of what such moves typically mean — not a stated intention from any party involved.

Sources

• CoinDesk (Tier 2, secondary), 2026-09-23 — the report and the transfer totals, itself citing on-chain analysts PeckShield and EmberCN (via Arkham and Etherscan labels) as its primary evidence. Noted: CoinDesk's page also carried a sponsored Ripple RLUSD report, which is marketing and unrelated to this story.

Not financial advice: this is a report on wallet movements, not a signal to buy or sell anything.