Nansen data suggests that 'smart money' wallets are unloading APE and loading up on aSTETH.

According to data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen, prolific and active cryptocurrency traders have been unloading Yuga Labs' ApeCoin and stocking up on Aave's aSTETH.

More than any other token tracked by Nansen, $1.28 million worth of APE has flowed out of wallets categorized as belonging to "smart money" in the last 24 hours.

A wallet is considered "smart money" by Nansen if it passes at least one of several tests, including:

- It is known to belong to an investment fund 

- It is known to belong to an investment fund 

- Through mechanisms such as "flash loans," it has made multiple profitable trades on a decentralized exchange (DEX) in a single transaction.

Outflows are usually a precursor to a drop in asset prices. Following the public launch of Yuga Labs' largest non-fungible token (NFT) product, the "Otherside" metaverse project, APE prices have dropped as much as 16.8% in the last 24 hours.

Yuga Labs launched ApeCoin, an ERC-20 governance and utility token used for the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization. Yuga Labs is best known for creating the Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection (DAO). If they did not have a Bored Ape or Mutant, people who wanted to participate in the "Otherside" metaverse project would have to buy an NFT with APE. Each "Otherdeed" NFT, which represented a virtual land title in the "Otherside" metaverse, was sold for 305 APE.

Otherdeed for Otherside has been the most actively traded collection among NFTs in the last 24 hours, which is unsurprising.

Otherdeed for Otherside clogged the Ethereum blockchain, costing traders more than $176 million in fees alone, with just under 100,000 ETH in volume and generating roughly $285 million for Yuga Labs.

"This has been the largest NFT mint in history by several multiples, and yet the gas used during the mint shows that demand far exceeded anyone’s wildest expectations," Yuga Labs tweeted.

Yuga Labs publicly apologized on Twitter for "turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while" after creating some of the highest gas fees in Ethereum's history.

Approximately $0.8 million worth of aSTETH has flowed into smart money wallets over the same 24-hour period, the largest inflow among tokens tracked by Nansen. Although inflows are a bullish sign, the value of aSTETH remains at the same level as ether.

In Lido, the leading liquid staking solution, aSTETH is Aave's yield-bearing token for stETH, or staked ether. Despite the fact that Curve has the largest stETH pool, with $4.7 billion in total value locked, Aave is another major stETH destination, with $3.01 billion in total stETH supplied. Inflows of aSTETH from Smart Money support the popular narrative that staked ETH could be a good investment option for large institutions.

By fLEXI tEAM