As Bitcoin continues to near its all-time high, breaking records and aiming for the first pre-halving ATH in history, a mysterious figure has been quietly accumulating a massive amount of BTC, and on-chain analysts have been scratching their heads.
The person (or group of persons), nicknamed 'Mr. 100', now owns over 54,000 BTC, worth around $3.2 billion at the time of writing.
As we mentioned earlier, Mr 10o is the nickname for a mysterious Bitcoin address that has been buying massive amounts of BTC since November 2022.
According to the address, which is viewable on BlockCypher, "Mr. 100" currently holds about 51,164 Bitcoin, and has completed over 200 transactions, most of which came from exchanges like Binance and KuCoin.
Nobody knows who "Mr. 100" is, but there are a few theories.
One of these theories is that "Mr. 100" is a lone investor, and simply "believes" in Bitcoin's future and has a long-term outlook.
Others claim that "Mr. 100" may be a group of investors—a bank or an institutional fund, for example—who are taking advantage of the increasing institutional adoption of Bitcoin spot ETFs.
Whatever the case may be, this makes Mr 100 one out of 2000 Bitcoin whales according to LookIntoBitcoin, that hold more than 1,000 BTC each, totalling over 7.5 million BTC, or about 40% of the total supply.
Since 14 February this year, Mr. 100 has bought an average of 100 Bitcoin almost every day, including on weekends.
In that short period, he has amassed 3806.54 Bitcoin, which is worth $207,996,959.
Moreover, Mr 100 is currently the 15th largest Bitcoin whale overall, having been active since November of 2022 and holding more than 50k BTC at the time of writing.
At one time, Mr 100 even bought around 500 of all 900 Bitcoins mined on 25 February, only a few weeks ago.
So far, the most compelling theory as to who Mr 100 is is from Vietnamese crypto analyst, Mai, who speculated in a recent tweet, that despite the lack of official confirmation, it is possible that the wallet is linked to Upbit, the South Korean crypto exchange.
As translated from Vietnamese, Mai says "After tracking all transactions, it is clear that this wallet address does not belong to an individual but to an organization or market maker […]. It is quite difficult for an individual to own such an amount.", she says.
She goes further to say that "Mr.100 buys $BTC through many exchanges, but 90% comes from Upbit and Bithumb, but only occasionally from Binance and OKX."
The movements of 'Mr. 100' and other whales can have both positive and negative effects on the market.
Aside from providing liquidity to the market for the bull run, the market can be affected on a whim, by the influence of Mr 100.
Mr 100 choosing to sell all of this accumulated Bitcoin at any time, can trigger all kinds of cascading effects like liquidations and margin calls that can make Bitcoin highly volatile and affect the smaller investors.
To this end, it is important to be aware of the activities and intentions of Mr 100 (and even actively track any massive sell-offs if necessary), because this investor's moves can have a significant impact on the direction of the Bitcoin market.
Overall, this underscores the importance of research, and not to rely solely on the action (or inaction) of whales who for all we know, have different goals and strategies than the average investor.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.