An unidentified Bitcoin whale has accumulated 118,300 BTC valued at $3,127,894,885 billion in just under three months, raising eyebrows about its true identity.
Based on data sourced from Bitinfocharts, the address labelled as “bc1q….59v2” embarked on its Bitcoin accumulation venture on May 8, 2022, with an initial acquisition of 0.25 BTC. This initial investment marked the genesis of a progressively accelerating accumulation trend that persisted until its most recent transaction on June 28.
The entity is now the third largest whale and sits just behind crypto exchanges Bitfinex, which holds 178,010 BTC and Binance, which has 248,5097 BTC.
Nonetheless, as this development comes to light, the cryptocurrency community has begun to scrutinize this whale’s identity, with speculations that it might represent an institutional acquisition. Notably amid these discussions is the persistent mention of BlackRock, with various individuals now convinced that the hedge fund is actively procuring the cryptocurrency asset.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with about $8.59 trillion of assets under management, recently filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF, joining the likes of Ark Invest and Wisdom Tree, who have expressed a strong desire to invest in the world’s largest cryptocurrency. In an interview last month, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, disclosed the surging demand for cryptocurrencies, particularly among its gold investors, noting that that’s why they believed there’s a great opportunity in the sector.
However, on Tuesday, famous crypto reporter Wu Blockchain linked the mysterious address to Gemini, stating that it was just a routine reorganization of its Bitcoin wallets.
“Gemini has transferred bitcoins to the new address bc1q….59v2 in the past 3 months. It currently holds 118,000 bitcoins, or about 3.08 billion U.S. dollars.” Wrote Wu Blockchain. And although Gemini was yet to confirm the transfers, following a thorough scrutiny of the Bitcoin movements, ZyCrypto confirmed the transfers between the two wallets.
Crypto exchanges routinely move huge sums of crypto assets to new wallet addresses to fortify their defence against threats such as potential cyber threats and ensure the safety of users’ digital assets.
Binance is perhaps the most active when it comes to this activity. In June, the exchange moved 15,000 BTC valued at around $396.6 million to a new cold wallet. The exchange also transferred a much more significant sum of 117,000 BTC worth over $3 billion from another cold wallet address to a new address.