Before its recent rally, ApeCoin (APE) was one of the worst-performing tokens, losing as much as 60% of its value in November. According to LookOnChain, the decline was caused by the project’s treasury selling its APE reserves. As per the Twitter user, the “ApeCoin treasury has been selling APE in small amounts.”
As per the user, over 4.6 million APE tokens, worth roughly $19.7 million, have been removed from the Treasury’s wallet. The user noted that 4,552,447 APE was sent to the address “0x876c,” and 47,552 APE was sent to the address “0xa29d”. According to LookOnChain, 5 ApeCoin Treasury wallets sent APE tokens to Coinbase, Binance, FTX, and KuCoin through the address “0xa29d” for sale.
Such a complex plan could have been utilized to cover one’s traces and hide a transfer of money intended for sale. Four additional ApeCoin Treasury wallets similarly sold APE reserves earlier today.
What caused the recent ApeCoin surge?
Over the last week, APE has witnessed significant gains. Moreover, the token is currently up by 24.9% on the weekly charts. The surge can be attributed to the announcement of APE staking rewards.
Horizen Labs updated the launch information for ApeCoin staking on November 23. Holders of APE, as well as Bored Ape and Mutant Ape NFT owners, will get token payouts for staking their owned tokens. Before rewards start on December 12, Horizen will make the staking interface available to customers on December 5.
However, Horizen revealed that several regions, including the United States, won’t be allowed to utilize its staking website due to regulatory issues. This caused a lot of debate on social media. Later, The Ape Foundation stated via a Twitter thread that alternative solutions could be used in those areas.
At press time, APE was trading at $4.05, down by 1.3% in the last 24 hours.