Blockchain analytics company, Arkham, recently reported that the substantial $8.6 billion Bitcoin transfer made last Thursday, the first of its kind in over 14 years, doesn’t look to be a prelude to a sell-off. Arkham shared in a recent post, “There’s no evidence to suggest that this Bitcoin whale intends to sell.”
Arkham suggests that the eight transfers, each involving 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from eight wallets that had been dormant for over 14 years, could be the wallet owner transitioning from the original legacy wallet to a more secure, low-fee Native SegWit address.
“Yesterday’s $8 billion transfers might be linked to address upgrades, moving from 1-addresses to bc1q-addresses,” Arkham reported. The firm also revealed that all the Bitcoin was initially deposited into the wallets on either April 2 or May 4, 2011, and remained untouched for more than 14 years. The Bitcoin is now stored in eight new wallets and hasn’t been moved since.
Meanwhile, blockchain research firm 10x Research suggests, despite no clear evidence, that large amounts of Bitcoin are gradually being offloaded into ETF and corporate treasury demand.
Interestingly, Coinbase’s Head of Product, Conor Grogan, put forward a more concerning possibility. He speculated about the slight chance of a hack causing the $8.6 billion Bitcoin transfer, suggesting it could potentially be the biggest heist in human history.
The enormous transfers have drawn the attention of the wider crypto industry. Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao humorously commented, “I got into crypto too late,” after observing the 2011 whales effortlessly moving crypto they purchased for merely $0.1.
