Arkham-Tagged Aoki Wallet Dumps SHIB and ETH, Routes USDT to Gemini

Arkham Intelligence-labeled wallets tied to Steve Aoki sold SHIB, swapped ETH, and routed $29,650 in USDT to Gemini, extending a recent pattern of exiting liquid tokens. His remaining on-chain exposure in this packet is concentrated in seven Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs that are still held and valued around $97,000 versus more than $800,000 paid in 2021.

Key Takeaways

• An Arkham Intelligence-labeled wallet tied to Steve Aoki sold 1.785 billion SHIB for roughly $10,300 and swapped 7.25 ETH for approximately $15,900, then routed $29,650 in USDT to Gemini.
• The same wallet sold 4.155 billion PEPE through 1inch for $14,700 about two weeks earlier.
• Seven Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs bought for more than $800,000 during the 2021 boom are now valued at about $13,800 each, or roughly $97,000 total.
• The BAYC position has not been sold, even as other liquid holdings appear to be consolidated toward Gemini.

Arkham Flags Aoki-Linked Wallet Exiting SHIB and ETH Into Gemini

Arkham Intelligence, the blockchain analytics platform that labels wallets and tracks on-chain flows, flagged activity from a wallet it ties to Steve Aoki that looks like a clean exit from remaining liquid tokens.

On Monday, the wallet sold 1.785 billion SHIB for roughly $10,300 and swapped 7.25 ETH for approximately $15,900, then routed $29,650 in USDT to Gemini, per Arkham data. USDT is the dollar-pegged stablecoin commonly used as a transfer and trading unit, and Gemini is a centralized exchange venue where funds can be held, traded, or moved off-chain.

The amounts are small in absolute terms, but the direction matters. Converting memecoin exposure and ETH into stablecoin and pushing it to a centralized venue is consistent with de-risking behavior or preparing funds for off-chain use, rather than rotating into another on-chain risk asset.

The PEPE Sale Two Weeks Earlier Extends the Liquidation Pattern

The Monday SHIB and ETH transactions were not isolated. About two weeks earlier, the same Arkham-labeled wallet sold 4.155 billion PEPE through 1inch for $14,700.

1inch is a decentralized exchange aggregator that routes trades across venues to seek best execution, and the use of an aggregator fits with a wallet trying to liquidate efficiently without committing to a single pool.

Between the larger exits, smaller stablecoin movements of $600 to $1,700 moved through MetaMask, the self-custody wallet commonly used to send tokens and interact with decentralized applications. Taken together, the sequence reads less like a one-off rebalance and more like a step-by-step consolidation out of liquid tokens and into stablecoin, with Gemini as the destination.

Seven BAYC Still Held as Floor Prices Sit Near ~$14K

Aoki’s remaining exposure in this packet is concentrated in seven Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. He bought the seven BAYC NFTs for more than $800,000 during the 2021 boom. They are now valued at about $13,800 each, or roughly $97,000 total, implying an 88% drawdown versus cost.

BAYC’s floor price, the lowest listed price for any Ape and the benchmark traders use for the collection’s mark, has fallen from over $400,000 in early 2022 to under $14,000 today. That collapse frames why the wallet’s liquid-token exits stand out. The liquid positions can be flattened quickly. The NFT position is still there, and it is deep underwater.

The broader backdrop in the packet is that the 2023–2025 lifted to all-time highs above $126,000 while NFTs were largely bypassed, with capital favoring projects with clearer utility and portfolio value over narrative-driven speculation.

Signals Traders Can Pull From Celebrity Wallet Flows—and the Limits

Celebrity wallet flows are noisy signals, but they can still map to risk appetite at the margin. Here, the actionable read is structural: liquid tokens were converted into USDT and routed to a centralized exchange, while the illiquid NFT exposure remains untouched.

The limits are just as important. The excerpt does not provide exact calendar dates for “Monday” or “two weeks earlier,” and the identity linkage depends on Arkham’s labeling methodology, which is not detailed in the packet.

For traders, the next tells are mechanical. Whether additional Aoki-linked transfers hit Gemini after the $29,650 USDT routing will clarify if this is continued consolidation or a one-off move. Any on-chain listing or sale activity from the seven BAYC NFTs would be a regime change from the current “not sold” status. BAYC floor behavior around the under-$14,000 level is the key reference point for whether the collection is stabilizing or still leaking. Follow-on memecoin or major-coin sales from the same wallet cluster would confirm the liquidation pattern is still active.

This Looks Like De-Risking of Liquid Tokens While the NFT Bag Stays Illiquid

I don’t treat celebrity wallets as alpha by default, but the flow pattern here is clean: SHIB, ETH, and PEPE were turned into USDT and pushed to Gemini. That’s a risk-off posture in practice, even if the dollar amounts are “pocket change.”

The real exposure is the BAYC inventory. The threshold that matters is whether those seven Apes move from passive holding to active listing, because that would turn a paper drawdown into realized supply hitting a thin market. If the BAYC floor holds near the under-$14,000 zone while more funds consolidate to Gemini, the setup starts to look structural rather than narrative-driven: liquid risk gets flattened first, and the illiquid NFT bag becomes the last thing left to decide.

Sources

• CoinDesk