BTC coins that have remained untouched since the ‘lawless era’ are suddenly liquid again, and people are starting to ask questions.
Why now? And what are the implications of this move?
On-chain data from August 28th -29th has shown that a large cache of bitcoin has become liquid again after nearly a decade. Since 2013, to be exact.
As if that wasn’t enough, the tranche of bitcoin of which the owner remains unknown was joined by the liquidation of another 5000 BTC a day after. In total, that makes 10,000 bitcoin, moving for the first time since the early 2010s.
Over the last few days, however, on-chain ‘detectives’ and analysts have concluded that rather than the funds being transferred to an exchange for the sale, most of it has been split into smaller chunks and distributed to several smaller wallets.
On analysis of the reason for the move, Maartunn, a contributor at the on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, has speculated that the question of privacy may have had a part to play in the move.
A Twitter user, @JA_Martun, using the Exchange Inflow CDD, shows that the coins, instead of going to an exchange to be sold, were probably sent to smaller wallets.
Just last week, CryptoQuant’s CEO, Ki Young Ju, argued that people who owned ‘old’ coins that had now significantly appreciated in value (especially in large amounts) were likely to start looking for ways to avoid drawing attention to their now ‘greatly increased wealth.’
Despite the current dip that saw bitcoin dump from a high of $65k to $20k, these ‘old coins’ have significantly appreciated in value, regardless.
When the 10,000 BTC in question were bought in 2013, they traded at around $1,165.
According to Ki Young Ju, these coins were minted in the ‘lawless era.’ Ki believes that these owners.
- They were likely early visionaries that accumulated their wealth through mining and trading, back when bitcoin was a relatively new concept.
- Likely got these coins from the Cryptsy bitcoin exchange before it was hacked.
How Many Of These Scenarios Have Ever happened?
Only six.
This recent move of the 10,000 bitcoin tranche was picked up by the ‘whale shadows indicator,’ created by Philip Swift, creator of LookIntoBitcoin, another on-chain analytics resource.
What This Means For BTC Price Action
The whale shadows indicator has highlighted the timelines of these scenarios and the subsequent price action of bitcoin.
As shown above, this kind of scenario has occurred six times and counting. Local highs usually follow these whale movements for the BTC/USD trading pair.
Following this turn of events, other twitter crypto influencers have also speculated that the funds are somehow tied to the rehabilitation process of the defunct crypto exchange, Mt. Gox, based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.
Disclaimer: The author’s comments and recommendations are solely for educational and informative purposes. They do not represent any financial or investment advice. Always DYOR (do your own research)
