A recent $8.6 billion Bitcoin transfer shows no signs of a sell-off, according to blockchain intelligence firm Arkham . The firm said that there “are no indications that this whale is selling Bitcoin” .
Arkham added that the eight transfers — which moved 10,000 Bitcoin at a time from eight wallets that were untouched for over 14 years — may be possibly due to the owner upgrading from the original legacy wallet to a Native SegWit address, which are said to have improved security and lower fees . Arkham said that all the Bitcoin was originally deposited into the wallets on April 2 or May 4, 2011, and remained untouched for more than 14 years . The firm added that the Bitcoin is now stored in eight new wallets and hasn't been moved since .
According to Lookonchain, two dormant Bitcoin wallets have transferred 20,000 BTC, valued at over $2 billion, after being inactive for 14 years . These wallets acquired the Bitcoin on April 3, 2011, when the price was approximately $0.78, representing a potential 140,000-fold return at current prices .
CryptoQuant head of research, Julio Moreno, stated that this was the largest daily movement of coins aged 10 years or more in Bitcoin's history . Another analyst noted that the entity that made the transactions on Friday held over 200,000 BTC at one point . Conor Grogan, the director of Coinbase, stated that the entity had a fortune of $21.5 billion, ranking it among the top five largest Bitcoin holders in history .
While there's no clear evidence the large amount of Bitcoin is being prepared for sale, its analysis has long suggested that early holders are gradually offloading into ETF and corporate treasury demand .
However, Coinbase's Conor Grogan, raised a more alarming possibility, saying that there's a slight chance a hack caused the $8.6 billion Bitcoin transfer, and if so, it could be the largest robbery ever .