Bitcoin whale on the move: On December 3, the Blockchain transaction history recorded a transfer of over 66,000 Bitcoin. The community rightly asks: What is behind it? And perhaps more importantly, what is in store for us? Some thoughts on the current wallet activity.
The dreaded Bitcoin whales don’t have the best reputation in the community – theoretically they have the possibility to influence the prices on the crypto market significantly. The last case that caused a furore was certainly that of the mysterious 1933p Wallet. A movement of 111,114 Bitcoin in September correlated with a break in the price and suspected manipulation around Tether. The suspicion fell on Dread Pirates Roberts, one of the moderators of the DarkNet marketplace Silk Road or even on employees in the haze circle of the Bitcoin stock exchange Mt.Gox. Ultimately the case could not be clarified however.
In the last days now a similar Wallet movement came up: An address that has existed since 2014, but since then has only recorded entries, has suddenly issued a whopping 66,233.75 Bitcoin. The unknown person(s) behind the wallet distributed the coins to a total of nine different wallets on 3 December. Now the question arises: What is behind it? We listened to the community and collected four theories.
What you'll learn 👉
Maintenance work at Coinbase
A guess that suggests itself is current maintenance work at Coinbase. The stock exchange announced this on 29 November via a blog post:
“In the next seven days Coinbase will carry out scheduled maintenance work on our platform, which can lead to movements on all Coinbase supported blockchains. These are controlled, strictly monitored movements that are performed to provide our customers with greater security and protection.”
And indeed, in an entry on the Russian crypto site Freedman Club, “Eugene Crypto” identifies the address from which the movements originate as a Cold Wallet from Coinbase. This would suggest that the exchange wants to provide more liquidity on its platform. On November 30 and December 1, just before the BTC started moving, Coinbase reported delays in sending Bitcoin. This supports the theory that Coinbase is using its cold wallet to increase liquidity.
Old Hodler address hacked
Without Private Key and Key Phrase it is very difficult to steal Bitcoin. Nevertheless, it is possible to do it through detours. In a medium post, a user named “CryptoNerd” declares that he thinks the Coinbase theory is unlikely. Here you can see that the individual coins have been sent to over 90 different addresses in order to “dilute” them. This serves to cover up the traces in order to sell them bit by bit. According to this theory, there would be no major dump, the Bitcoin price would not be significantly affected.
Fear of access by US authorities
This theory follows previous theory, also here movements would serve following cover-up. In an announcement on December 3, Sigal Madelker announced that the United States Treasury would step up its efforts to combat money laundering and illegal activities in the crypto industry. In the course of an action against Iranian blackmailers, the anti-terror department of the USA had managed for the first time to clearly assign Bitcoin addresses to individuals. This is what it says in detail:
“As Iranian and other bad actors attempt to misuse digital currency to facilitate illicit activity, financial institutions, including exchangers and other providers of digital currency services, must guard against the risks of assisting these malicious actors. Using its technical expertise, the digital currency industry must harden its networks and undertake the steps necessary to prevent illicit actors from exploiting its services. For example, shortly after last week’s designation, we saw at least one compliance company not only quickly alert their customers about our sanctions but also send around additional information related to due diligence they had expeditiously conducted. That’s exactly what we want to see in this and other areas.
Taking targeted action is just one aspect of our strategy to mitigate the risks associated with this emerging technology. Through FinCEN, Treasury regulates virtual currency exchangers and other virtual currency businesses as money transmitters and requires them to abide by Bank Secrecy Act obligations.”
According to this theory, in line with the theory of CryptoNerd, the movement would argue that coins are moved to disguise their origin. Accordingly, this could lead to an exchange for privacy coins or the use of Bitcoin tumblers.
Miners want to cash out to buy new miners
According to F2pool founder Mao Shixing, between 600,000 and 800,000 miners have been taken off the grid since mid-November. Due to the strong price losses of the continuing bear market, Bitcoin’s mining no longer seemed profitable – we reported. In the same breath, a correspondingly large number of mining equipment was sold. To counter this, Bitmain has announced the Antminer S15 for December. With the reduced difficulty and the new device Bitcoin Mining shall become more profitable again. According to this theory, the large amount of Bitcoin would be used to cash out and buy new miners with the new capital.
Conclusion: No reason for FUD
Probably the most likely theory is that Coinbase is trying to provide more liquidity on its exchange. This would not lead to a bigger dump, as would the theories of concealment. If there were indeed a larger mining pool behind it and Bitcoin were to flood the market soon, there would be a danger. However, given the current market situation, this is unlikely.
What do you think of the theories? Is Satoshi Nakamoto behind the movements and wants to sell all his coins because he suddenly became poor? Or does Craig Wright want to dump the Bitcoin rate so far to push Bitcoin SV up with his profits?
