Somebody made one of the biggest transactions in bitcoin history on Thursday, Sept. 5. The unidentified person (or group of persons) transferred 94,505 bitcoins.
$1 Billion Worth Of Bitcoins Moved In A Single Transaction
The price of bitcoin at the time was around $10,600, which means the transaction was worth about $1 billion. The value of the bitcoins would now be around $967 million.
Whale Alert, a Twitter account that tracks large cryptocurrency transactions, first spotted the transfer and tweeted about it minutes after it happened. Bitcoin addresses are anonymous by default, but the shared transaction ledger is open so third parties can keep track of bitcoin movements.
The transaction appears to be one of the recipient address' first. The large transaction was followed by smaller transactions.
Who Transferred 1 Billion Dollars In Bitcoin?
It isn't yet known who is behind the transaction, but blockchain analysis firm TokenAnalyst noticed that many of the transactions were from Huobi wallets. A spokesperson for the Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange said they are looking into the validity of the claim.
Others suggested that the transaction was a deposit into the new Bakkt Warehouse product. Bakkt, a Bitcoin futures provider, opened a "warehouse" for storing customer funds on Sept. 6, a day after the billion-dollar bitcoin move. The transaction could have also involved liquidated funds from the PlusToken Ponzi scheme.
Only around 100 Bitcoin addresses hold more than 10,000 bitcoins, which make up 14.95 percent of all mined coins. Many of the largest holders are Bitcoin exchanges. There are also the so-called whales who have accumulated large hoards of bitcoins through mining or investing.
Other Large Bitcoin Transactions
The transaction appears to be the largest transaction in bitcoin terms. In 2013, someone moved 194,993 bitcoins in one transaction. Bitcoins, however, were less valuable back then so the move was valued at only around $150 million.
Two years earlier in 2011, a single transaction moved 550,000 bitcoin, but since bitcoins were only worth around $3 at the time, the transaction was valued at just $1.5 million.
