Whale Alert: 8,884 Bitcoins ($101 Million) on the Move to Coinbase

While Bitcoin holders are no doubt content with the recent consolidation above $11,000, a whale alert from a short while ago could either increase traders’ joy or spoil the merry mood.

A 8,884 BTC transaction, worth approximately $101,530,110, left an unknown wallet on its way to the US-based crypto exchange Coinbase. What catches the eye, however, is the fact that the wallet address had been essentially inactive for nearly a year. 

Aside from tiny transactions ranging from $0.006 to $2.45 in value last month, you would have to go as far back as July 30, 2018 to see a significant Bitcoin transaction emanating from the wallet in question. Back then, it was a transaction worth roughly $529,099.

What could be the effect of this transaction? At the time of writing, it had not had any significant impact on the Bitcoin price. Being on Coinbase, however, the funds could still be swapped for cash by whoever controls the wallet. It’s also a safe assumption that the entity in possession of the wallet (likely a custodian or financial institution) would prefer to maximize its average selling price and not manipulate the market. Another option could be buying altcoins with all that bitcoin.

The Power of 3,645 BTC

Just a little over a month ago, the crypto world saw what a 3,645 BTC command could do on one exchange, Bitstamp, as Bitcoin’s price dropped from $7,749 to $7,179 in less than 30 minutes, with Bitcoin’s 24-hour decline being 8.7%. Bitcoin recorded a low near $6,000 on Bitstamp, which triggered a massive sell-off on all other exchanges. However, Bitcoin recovered nicely from that temporary drop.

massive sell order at the front of BitStamp pic.twitter.com/RgOviG3a6p

— BTCVIX (@BTCVIX) May 17, 2019

Only $121 to Send $100 Million

Another interesting point is that the sender paid only 0.0108 BTC in transaction fees, which at the time of writing equaled $121. Try that anywhere else but crypto and you’d be reminded why Satoshi wrote the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Bitcoin at the time of writing was trading at $11,340 with a market cap of $201.6 billion and a daily increase of roughly 2%.