Recently, a combined $340 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) were transferred to major U.S.-based exchange Kraken from two separate unknown sources. According to Whale Alert data, 1,544,974 SOL worth around $278.8 million and 500 BTC equivalent to at $51.9 million stunned Kraken within an hour of each other.
Initially flagged as coming from "unknown wallets," more sophisticated blockchain data from Arkham reveals that both transactions originated from previously identified institutional and exchange-linked addresses.
Regarding the Solana transaction, data indicates that Kraken's cold wallet sent funds to its own hot wallet - that suggests internal reallocation rather than an external deposit. However, the size of the movement is eye-catching and may signal heightened liquidity usage, for increased client trading or market-making activities perhaps.
The Bitcoin transaction was linked to a hot wallet owned by Deribit, an institutional derivatives exchange recently acquired by Coinbase. A total of 699.7 BTC were sent, but only 500 BTC was deposited into Kraken; the remainder stayed in the original wallet.
Despite the size of the transfers, the price action of both cryptocurrencies appeared muted. SOL is trading at around $181 after a minor intraday drop and recovery. Meanwhile, Bitcoin remains stable at around $104,000. So, neither asset showed signs of major volatility.
Although there were no immediate exchange-wide announcements following the transactions, their scale and coordination suggest backend exchange operations or larger institutional strategies rather than retail activity.
While these transactions are not uncommon individually, they raise questions about the timing. Hence, it is worth keeping a close eye on the market in the coming hours.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin