Quant (QNT) jumped on news of cooperation with the U.S. banking sector, and large wallets that had not moved for more than three years then transferred about $10 million worth of QNT to exchanges, data showed. Analysis has emerged that long-term holders may have sought to take profits by using the buying that flowed in during the surge.

Blockchain outlet U.Today reported on Sept. 29 that on-chain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence detected two large QNT addresses with no transactions since 2023 moving almost simultaneously.

Address 0x6d32 transferred 8,250 QNT to Binance, worth about $1.88 million at the time. Another address, 0xd633, moved 34,200 QNT in multiple transfers totaling about $8.05 million. Of that, 9,000 QNT worth about $2.12 million went to Coinbase and Kraken.

Combined, the amount moved from the two wallets was about $10 million. The large transfers drew attention as they occurred when QNT was surging and retail investors were buying.

The immediate trigger for the surge was news of cooperation with the U.S. bank consortium The Clearing House (TCH). TCH, whose participants include JPMorgan, Citi and Bank of America, selected Quant as a technology partner for the integration of tokenised deposits.

Expectations for QNT also rose quickly after it became known that a payment system operated by TCH processes about $2 trillion in transactions a day. Limited supply also amplified the price rise. QNT, whose total supply is capped at about 14.6 million tokens, surged in a short period from $56 to $74 to around $373.

After the jump, the market began to examine whether the cooperation with TCH would translate into actual demand for the QNT token.

The cooperation between TCH and Quant is focused on providing software and infrastructure to support interoperability between banks. The partnership does not require financial institutions to buy QNT on the open market or stipulate that QNT be used directly in the payment process.

This has also prompted an interpretation that expectations driven by the partnership news expanded faster than actual demand for QNT itself. It suggests long-term holders may have used those expectations and the higher price as an opportunity to sell.

It has not been confirmed whether the wallets are owned by Quant insiders or are typical long-term holder wallets. It is therefore difficult to conclude from these transactions alone that insiders sold or that a specific group took profits.

Price volatility also increased. Liquidations of leveraged long positions occurred as long-term holdings moved to exchanges, and the volume of long liquidations at one point rose to as much as $430,000 within an hour.

After the surge, QNT retreated to $241 to $253. It showed that even when a catalyst appears to support a sharp rise, prices can quickly overheat if the catalyst does not connect to direct demand for the token itself.

The case is also drawing attention for showing that blockchain and tokenisation cooperation in the banking sector does not immediately mean increased token demand for the project involved. Whether additional long-term holdings come to market and how cooperation with TCH links to actual use of QNT are emerging as key variables in gauging price and supply-demand conditions.