Key Takeaways
- Multicoin Capital deposited all 286,057 AAVE tokens ($26.68M) into Coinbase Prime on Might 16.
- The fund purchased 338,005 AAVE at a mean of $218 per token in late 2025, now down almost 60% to $88.
- Coinbase Prime deposits by institutional funds traditionally are likely to precede giant structured OTC exits.
How the Place Was Constructed
Onchain knowledge reveals Multicoin Capital transferring its whole remaining Aave (AAVE) place of 286,057 tokens into Coinbase Prime. At AAVE’s present worth of roughly $89, the batch is price roughly $26 million. The transfer comes after what has develop into one of many extra expensive public trades of the present cycle for a serious crypto fund.
As Bitcoin.com Information beforehand reported, Multicoin Capital gathered 338,005 AAVE tokens between October 13 and November 25, 2025, routing purchases by way of Galaxy Digital’s over-the-counter (OTC) desk. The fund spent roughly $73.7 million to construct the place at a mean worth of $218 per token.
Aave (AAVE) is the governance and fee-sharing token of the Aave protocol, the biggest decentralized finance ( DeFi) lending platform by complete worth locked. Multicoin’s thesis possible centered on Aave’s continued development as DeFi exercise scaled in a brand new bull cycle, a wager that has not paid off. Regardless of bitcoin surpassing $100,000 in 2026, DeFi governance tokens broadly underperformed the bitcoin-led market.
The Losses
With AAVE close to $90, Multicoin’s authentic 338,005-token place is price roughly $31 million in opposition to an outlay of $73.7 million, leading to an unrealized lack of over $40 million (a 55% drawdown from entry).
Earlier in Might, the fund moved parts of its AAVE to Galaxy Digital OTC wallets and BitGo, main many to imagine it was a staged exit. The Might 16 deposit strikes the total remaining steadiness to Coinbase Prime in a single transaction, bolstering the sentiment additional.
The 286,057-token batch is critical relative to AAVE’s common every day buying and selling quantity, and any sale of that dimension would possible be damaged up and routed by way of OTC channels to reduce slippage, precisely the transaction sort Coinbase Prime is constructed to deal with.
With Aave’s worth being range-bound between $88 and $100 for a number of weeks, a switch of this magnitude might symbolize a basic shift from accumulation to offloading on Multicoin’s behalf.