The 80,000 BTC saga comes to an end: Major broker Galaxy Digital just completed the selling of the massive stake via over-the-counter (OTC) deals. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju unveils that the transaction that shook the crypto world might be associated with a hacked exchange.
Satoshi-era investor or exchange hacker? CryptoQuant CEO on 80,000 BTC whale
The widely discussed 80,000 Bitcoins (BTC) — roughly $9.4 billion in current prices — ended up being sold via OTC deals handled by Galaxy Digital, a top-tier digital asset broker. At the same time, the crypto community has no idea who the mysterious BTC whale behind these transfers was.
Ki Young Ju, the CEO and founder of CryptoQuant, a leading on-chain analytics service, announced that these Bitcoins (BTC) might be associated with the 2011 hack of MyBitcoin, one of the first crypto exchanges.
As per the statement shared by Ki Young Ju with his 422,500 X followers, the transfers came from wallets hosted by MyBitcoin. The wallets were dormant since April 2011, two months before the exchange suffered the devastating hack.
Meanwhile, the assets might also be moved by the anonymous owner of the exchange known as Tom Williams. On Aug. 4, 2011, Williams admitted the hack and announced the start of the "working out" procedure.
MyBitcoin hack, allegedly organized by the Hack Canada group, resulted in $72,000 in losses. As such, the hacker or the vanished owner of the exchange had been sitting on 130,500x ROI before selling Bitcoins (BTC) after 14 years of dormancy.
Bitcoin (BTC) price fails to react to massive sale
Ki Young Ju admitted that Galaxy Digital might not have organized forensics procedures before proceeding with such a transaction that might be related to the hacker attack.
Galaxy Digital confirmed the involvement in the deal, but called the client a "Satoshi-era investor," avoiding disclosing their identity:
Galaxy completed the sale of more than 80 000 Bitcoin valued at over 9 billion based on current market prices for a Satoshi-era investor representing one of the earliest and the most significant exits from the digital assets market.
In a press release, a Galaxy representative also added that the transaction was part of the investor's broader estate planning strategy.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency, remains calm following the announcement. The crypto king's price sits at $117,686, being 1.2% up in the last 24 hours. Its market cap is approaching $2.35 trillion.
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team