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The parabolic rally in Quant (QNT), which rose 250–400% over the past week, prompted activity in wallets that had been dormant for more than three years. Apparently, large holders used the influx of retail liquidity to move substantial amounts to exchanges.

According to onchain monitoring by Arkham Intelligence, two large addresses that had made no transactions since 2023 broke their three-year silence almost simultaneously:

  • Address 0x6d32 transferred 8,250 QNT to Binance, worth approximately $1.88 million at the time of the transaction.

  • Address 0xd633 took a phased approach, moving 34,200 QNT (about $8.05 million). Of that amount, 9,000 QNT ($2.12 million) was sent to Coinbase and Kraken.

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The assets moved were worth about $10 million in total. These large transfers coincided with a peak in local demand, giving the holders an opportunity to exit without putting substantial pressure on the price at the time.

The catalyst for QNT's sharp rise was an official announcement from The Clearing House (TCH), a U.S. consortium that includes major commercial banks such as JPMorgan, Citi and Bank of America.

The organization selected Quant as a technology partner for integrating tokenized deposits. Because TCH's payment systems process about $2 trillion in transactions daily, the news triggered a wave of speculative demand. QNT's limited supply of 14.6 million tokens accelerated the price move from the $56–$74 range to a peak near $373.

Why are whales selling an asset just recognized by the largest U.S. banks?

The change in market direction and profit-taking by large holders may reflect the nature of the agreement. The TCH–Quant partnership involves software and infrastructure for interoperability between banks.

The contract, however, does not require financial institutions to buy QNT on the open market or use the token for settlement.

Large investors may have judged that the short-term excitement had outpaced the fundamental value of the integration. Alternatively, the wallets taking profits may have belonged to insiders or to holders who saw little further upside.

In any case, selling by long-term holders coincided with forced closures of leveraged long positions. At one point, long liquidations reached $430,000 in an hour, after which QNT fell back into the $241–$253 range.

The move showed a familiar market pattern: large holders using speculative retail demand as an opportunity to cash out.