Someone Just Moved a Billion Dollars in Bitcoin and No One Knows Why

As reported by Vice, “Last week, an unknown person or group transferred 94,505 bitcoins valued at over $1 billion USD in a single transaction. Now, observers are scratching their heads over the question of who is responsible for the eye-popping transfer.

“Whale Alert, a Twitter account dedicated to live tracking of large cryptocurrency transactions, first spotted the transfer and tweeted an alert minutes after it happened late on Thursday night, EST time.

“That transaction seems to be one of the recipient address’ first, followed by dozens of smaller transactions ranging from $6,644 to $.07. For now, it’s anyone’s guess as to who is behind the transaction, as the addresses involved aren’t known to the cryptocurrency community (all Bitcoin addresses are pseudonymous but can gain recognition through re-use or public identification by the owner.)

“There are only around 100 Bitcoin addresses holding more than 10,000 bitcoins, accounting for 14.95 percent of all mined coins, according to BitInfoCharts. Many of the largest holders are Bitcoin exchanges. Besides companies and institutions, there are also ‘whales’ who have accumulated large hoards of bitcoins either through mining or savvy investing.

“The idea that a business may be involved led to the theory that Bakkt, a Bitcoin futures provider that opened a ‘warehouse’ to store customer funds on September 6, was responsible for the transaction.”

Continue to read the full story at Vice.

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