An early secret bitcoin investor is cashing out. So far they have offloaded $5.5 million to exchanges.
A Bitcoin investor who last traded an asset worth just $374 in 2014 is cashing out.
According to Arkham Intelligence, a crypto data platform, in the past two months an unknown investor, who owns $75 million in bitcoin, has routinely sent a portion of their stash to crypto exchanges.
The latest move by the investor is that they send another $630,000 worth of Bitcoin to Kraken. This brings the total sent to the exchanges to $5.5 million.
ππ‘ππππ‘π§ 200π΅ WHALπππ π’π’ π¦π’π§ π§π 5 days after Bitcoin's first block (13 January 2009) the ancient Bitcoin miner Kraken moved another $630K BTC to BTC – a total of $5.47M previously. 2 months. Thisβ¦ pic.twitter.com/kjKx34Ib6B
β Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) October 14, 2024
ππ‘ππππ‘π§ 200π΅ WHALπππ π’π’ π¦π’π§ π§π 5 days after Bitcoin's first block (13 January 2009) the ancient Bitcoin miner Kraken moved another $630K BTC to BTC – a total of $5.47M previously. 2 months. Thisβ¦ pic.twitter.com/kjKx34Ib6B
β Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) October 14, 2024
Sending funds to a centralized crypto exchange usually indicates that the holder is selling.
Over the years, many heavyweight bitcoin investors have made a splash in the market, from early adopters like the Winklevoss twins, to recent bulls like MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor.
But many held on to their bitcoin despite its extreme volatility and played the long game, eyeing outsized returns.
Saylor predicts that the price of Bitcoin will hit $13 million By 2045
So it's strange that one of the earliest holders of Bitcoin, who started hoarding it just days after its launch, suddenly started selling.
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Strange behavior
A Bitcoin investor exhibits some strange behavior. They've moved their stash to new wallets several times since they started offloading.
The fact that an investor started mining Bitcoin five days after launching the network in 2009 adds another layer of intrigue.
Not surprisingly, the investor was part of the cypherpunk movement, a sounding board for Satoshi Nakamoto during the development of Bitcoin.
Another clue to the investor's identity comes from the fact that investors were inactive for 10 years between 2014 and 2024.
$72 billion
Investors aren't the only ones to wake up after a long period of inactivity. Many older wallets have started moving around their holdings this year.
In any case, the mystery investor's stash pales in comparison to other large holders.
For example, Satoshi Nakamoto's wallets contain 1.1 million coins worth about $72 billion.
There is Tim Craig News' Edinburgh-based DeFi correspondent. Reach out with tips at [email protected].
