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Who made the $8 billion bitcoin move?

Last week, a dormant wallet containing approximately 80,000 BTC ($8.6 billion at the time) suddenly came to life, and crypto Twitter lost its mind.

The coins hadn't moved since 2011 when Bitcoin was trading for less than $10. For those keeping score (and who isn’t?), that’s a 700,000% return.

Conspiracies swirled instantly. Is this a government or corporate seizure? Is Mt. Gox finally distributing the remaining BTC to former users? Did someone hack an OG wallet?

Maybe…maybe. But probably not. Moreover, as of Tuesday morning, on-chain reports record the whale stash being deposited at Galaxy Digital’s trading desk. It looks like our ancient whale intends to sell at least a portion of the haul. 

Let’s debunk most of the conspiracies and learn a bit about how we decipher on-chain data.

An ancient bitcoin whale awakens or something more?

Here are the more popular theories – and why they are probably wrong.

Government seizure: When the feds seize Bitcoin, they don't do it quietly. They issue press releases, update their websites, and generally make a big show of it. The DOJ loves nothing more than bragging about their crypto busts. But with this movement? Radio silence from Uncle Sam.

Asset forfeiture: This is by far the most interesting conspiracy. Days before the 80k wallet started moving, some transactions were sent to the wallet from another address. These transactions contained messages in the OP_RETURN field that read, “NOTICE TO OWNER: see www [dot] salomonbros [dot] com/owner_notice.” That URL linked to a page that said the wallet appears lost/abandoned and that the company on the website, Salomon Brothers, had “taken possession.”

After investigation, the website appears illegitimate, not the least of which because, after a series of scandals, Saloman Brothers was acquired by Traveler’s Group in 1997, later merged with Citigroup in 1998, and dissolved as a brand in 2003 (so maybe the message is tongue-in-cheek). 

BitMEX Research reached out to individuals on the site and got responses indicating that the messages were a scam. We should also note that Calvin Ayre is notorious for utilizing a similar “notice” trick to fraudulently sue Bitcoin developers. All indications for these transactions being a response to asset forfeiture appear worthless.

Mt. Gox distributing: Mt. Gox trustees have been incredibly transparent about their distribution process. Every major movement is announced and tracked. The remaining Bitcoin is in documented wallets. None of these wallets are connected to MtGox historically nor do they appear linked in any way to the trustee.

Satoshi is moving coins: This theory is fun, but it’s almost certainly wrong. Here’s why.

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