Crypto Crash: $40-Billion Wipeout Caused By Just 7 'Whale' Traders, Research Finds

The research primarily looked at why LUNA and UST saw an unprecedented meltdown in May.

The overall crypto market saw a major dip in token prices in May. ( Image Source :Pixabay/Sergei Tokmakov )

In May, the overall cryptocurrency market saw an unprecedented meltdown as $40 billion got wiped out of investors’ holdings. Now, new research suggests that this was caused by the act of just seven ‘whale’ traders. For those unaware, institutions or investors who hold considerably large amounts of certain cryptocurrencies are referred to as ‘whales.’ The recent crypto crash was primarily caused by the ‘de-pegging’ of TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin, which in turn led to Terra (LUNA) losing almost of its value, as the two crypto coins were directly interlinked.

The research, published by cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen on May 27, primarily looked at why LUNA and UST saw such a massive plunge last month. It mainly looked to debunk theories that stated the crypto collapse was caused by a single entity. “We refute the popular narrative of one ‘attacker’ or ‘hacker’ working to destabilise UST,” Nansen stated in its report. “Our on-chain investigation revealed that a small number of players identified vulnerabilities early into the UST de-peg.”

UST is a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar. As it lost its dollar value, also referred to as ‘de-pegging,’ the LUNA crypto, which was directly linked to UST, lost nearly all its value, trading at over 99 percent below its all-time peak of $118.

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The research says that between May 7 and May 11, the whale accounts in question aggressively sold UST on crypto exchanges, as they appeared to have lost faith in UST’s capability of maintaining its dollar peg.

Here’s the list of the seven wallets “most likely to have played a significant role in the UST de-peg”, as per the research:

• 0x8d47f08ebc5554504742f547eb721a43d4947d0a (EIP 1559 User)
• 0x4b5e60cb1cd6c5e67af5e6cf63229d1614bb781c (Celsius)
• 0x1df8ea15bb725e110118f031e8e71b91abaa2a06 (hs0327.eth)
• 0xeb5425e650b04e49e5e8b62fbf1c3f60df01f232 (Heavy Dex Trader)
• 0x41339d9825963515e5705df8d3b0ea98105ebb1c (Smart LP: 0x413)
• 0x68963dc7c28a36fcacb0b39ac2d807b0329b9c69 (Token Millionaire / Heavy Dex Trader)
• 0x9f705ff1da72ed334f0e80f90aae5644f5cd7784 (Token Millionaire)

When the Luna Foundation Guard failed to stabilise the UST price, even more holders began to sell to cut losses, and hence, the price fell lower than ever.

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Terra creator Do Kwon suggested a Terra Revival Plan 2, which led to the formation of a new version of Terra, commonly referred to as LUNA 2.0 or Terra 2.0. The new coin made its debut on May 27, but so far, showed extremely volatile price movements since its launch.