Bitcoin Forum

https://news.bitcoin.com/previously-inactive-whales-are-moving-large-amounts-of-btc/

Sources show that more than 608k Bitcoins were moved since they have been inactive for more than 3-5 years. Spiry, a Twitter user had also disclosed a list of those 76 wallets where these coins were sent in a batch of 8k coins (probably all may be OTC transactions) in a post here - https://mobile.twitter.com/spirybtc/status/1070339579557892098

Watching a very harsh period going on in the whole crypto, I believe this doesn't really look good for hodlers if these whales ever decide to move their coins to exchanges to dump them. It's their right to do whatever they wish to, but should such transactions and many more that happened before, be considered one of the major reasons for BTC to come to such irrelevant levels whilst if we listen to what Bitcoin bulls had to say, Bitcoin is very low in its market price compared to its fair price which should be above $15k.

Reading this kind of article or getting this kind of news when the market is on the bear is like having a wound on your body and someone accidentally rub the salt into your wound.
Have been in crypto for almost 4 years, and seems like my faith starting to waver.
indeed the price is much higher compared to 2 years ago, but we need to understand that a LOT of peoples are losing their money right now.
if it goes lower from this point, what will happen to our crypto space later on?

Hell yeah, that's what everyone who bought above the current levels must be feeling. Even when Bitcoin bulls used to ask people to "KEEP CALM AND BUY BITCOINS AT SUCH CHEAP RATES" when it was playing at $6k, nobody would've thought ever that the bearish times (Futures and shorting opportunities) would kill the value to under $3250 levels.


What have you exactly learnt if your faith started to shiver during bearish times? Are you not aware of the fact that BTC survived worst conditions, even worst than these? Yes, I can understand that the types of deaths it had before were completely different from the current position, taking into account the numbers which rose exceptionally during a year itself. But then, this was really needed and was destined to happen. Now has the time come for BTC to recover, keep faith my friend and hodl, this is what bears want us to do - lose our trust in crypto, so don't make it easy for them.


Nothing would happen, it'll only make an average investor lose their faith in cryptocurrencies and that's when the real game of snatching away the opportunities from us will start taking place.

Instead of actually panicking like "ooo nooo mr whale dump the bitcoin price", why not be amazed instead on how someone managed to move HUGE amounts of value, with very minimal fees, and without an intermediary? Now that's remarkable! Like geez. Let's not focus on prices for at least a day.

Not to mention that we don't even know if the bitcoins are actually on the way to an exchange wallet or not.

I think it was those who bought BTC since 2010 and now they have forgotten the Private key. They can not access it and our market will take 608k bitcoin.
But it will not matter, bitcoin has not been exploited yet. It does not affect too much on the volatility of the crypto market.

It's not a whale, but solely Coinbase performing maintenance that will result in a better (i.e. more secure) distribution of coins, and probably also to claim the fork coins.

https://blog.coinbase.com/notice-of-blockchain-movements-b09cb1ec46dd

I'm quite shocked that they hold that many coins. It's crazy if you think about it, because this just shows how much 'faith' people have in Coinbase, a centralized entity. I get it, it's one of the most compliant exchanges, but that doesn't mean it won't ever mess up one way or another.

I do however like how they used Segwit to save up on fees, which perfectly demonstrates how they acknowledge its usefulness.

Could not agree more with this statement.


I know the fact that Bitcoin survived worst conditions before this, but we need to understand that we are in on different level from before.
today, more than one country that supports Bitcoin. And when the price goes down this lower, what will happen with their investor?


Do not agree, when Japan stated that they were supporting it. Their investor and even their citizen were using it, that means they were not a regular investor but instead they were the foundation. If they are losing it right now, do you think Bitcoin will survive?

Large-scale transfer of bitcoin does not mean that prices will fall because the market is flooded with bitcoin, but this may add to market activity which will certainly increase trading volume which impacts on the growth of crypto prices. We also hope this will give a positive role to the price trend which is currently still declining

You may have a point in your assessment dude, but we should always remember that whether the market is increasing or decreasing,
We as a trader in crypto can still make a chance to earn when we do the actual trade. If we do the right and proper things while we are in the platform exchange. Though, we knew lots of community faced loss of money in trading.

These are issues one doesn't boarder with because Bitcoin will always survive the most difficult time and come out victorious. In regard to the whales moving their Bitcoin of such volume is a plus and most be commended. The movement of such Bitcoin could be the reason behind CoinBase.com maintenance which is currently taking place. Bitcoin will always come out strong after the huddles of the bear market.  

Thank you. This has been discussed several times before, and I made a similar post debunking all this panic a few weeks ago here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5079682.msg48430890#msg48430890

All the addresses on that list can be traced back to the following 9 addresses which were loaded up with ~66,000BTC each in 2013: https://www.blockchain.com/btc/tx/a289ea76bcc396412e90d63b90eb462ea2adb326aa027d5a1bb8864c7c152012

Some of these addresses were emptied 18 months ago before the big bull run. Some of them are being emptied now. It bears no relation to the market. It is simply Coinbase securing their cold storage.

Then they were bleedin' dimwits.

You don't get a bubble where a one page website and a non existent token is 'worth' 'billions' without having your balls kicked until they're flattened in the aftermath.

A 6 grand ish bottom way less than a year after the emptiest and longest pump imaginable seemed like dreamland to me. No one gets off that easy. If this has been the bottom then there could've been much worse outcomes.

As for this wallet stuff, I pray for the day when a straightforward movement does not attract 'OMIGODWEALLGONNADIE' threads.

I really appreciate the fact that they chose SegWit to keep the fees to least and used it to move their money in bech32 addresses, it's not just the price alone but about the confidence of an average investor. I'm not so influenced that I'd panic and start shouting the way you mentioned, but instead, I've just shared what I came to know. :)


Even if it's Coinbase, why can't these be called whales themselves as they hold such drastically huge amounts which already gave them too much power to make/break the markets according to their Government's orders (as you mentioned that they're too much centralized as an organization for cryptocurrencies). Bitmex and Bitfinex are also two of the biggest exchanges holding the highest amount of BTC and everyone knows the fact that Bitmex manipulates the market price of all the listed crypto over there. Exchanges like Coinbase may not be called whales alone, but centrally controlled whales who, with just one steer of their boss, may drive the markets towards the side their boss has chosen.

I believe there are moving the coins to exchange to dump. We should expect another dump in future and I was thinking that bitcoin needs  to be preserved by some trustees which are ready to hold large quantities in some wallets in other to make it very difficult for the price to go down the way it is currently.  I did see bitcoin in the hand of many people and companies that did not like it grow and development and that is why they keep dumping it as will.

There's a difference between dumping 608,000 bitcoins and market manipulation, which I agree Coinbase are certainly guilty of (not to mention insider trading). The 608,000 bitcoins they are moving around, for a large part, aren't theirs. The BTC belong to Coinbase's customers who are currently actively trading, or (stupidly) storing their coins on the exchange. They could theoretically move all these coins to another exchange, sell them, make billions and dump the market, but they would all quickly end up in prison.

The movement of this batch of bitcoins began on November 26.if you did not know, these movements served as a further drawdown after the first decline on November 14, 2018.
If you watch the movement of money in some way it is possible to predict the direction of the price in the near future and it is also one of the strategies of trade in this market.
Those who saw these movements in advance sold their bitcoins and were in a good plus. Follow the news, read more and you will also be aware of the main events.

I'm not sure how Bitmex manipulates the market aside from trying to stirr up traders to become more active, or to perform 'maintenance' during odd time frames. Bitmex fetches its prices from Bitstamp, Coinbase Pro and Kraken. In other words, price discovery happens at these exchanges and not Bitmex itself.

That could happen, but considering the oversight on Coinbase, and their intentions to remain the most trusted and compliant exchange, I don't see them personally attempt to command traders what to do with their funds. I'm 100x more worried about a hack or an insider job from a rogue employee, or the government itself ordering to freeze funds of certain entities using Coinbase.

Having over 600,000BTC makes you wonder if anyone would ever notice if 10,000-20,000BTC are missing if Coinbase decides to not report a hack or theft, especially with how it's highly unlikley that everyone will withdraw their coins all at once.

608k of bitcoins is a large amount.
I am hoping what I read is untrue. If this is seen by small hodlers then a big wave may come again producing a large panic that even .1btc holders might make a difference to this value by now.

I still dont get it. Is this really the enough value for them to suddenly withdraw their bitcoins which is the future of currencies and also a part of the new world technology.

I just also hope they dont regret it. Those movements could really cause a lot before the end of the year, for many are still hoping that history will repeat itself.

This was in the news today: https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/12/how-coinbase-carried-out-largest-crypto-migration-ever-5-of-all-btc-and-8-of-all-eth/

Basically exactly what the above poster has said. It was coinbase upgrading their cold storage from Generation 3 to Generation 4.

Generation 1 was basically a simple USB stick and paper wallet stored at a safety deposit box at the bank. Generation 4 is much more complex and secure.

And it has already been interpreted by a lot,including the OP, as a bitcoin potential crash,whales this and that,i think the major issue we have here isn't even the bear market,but panic and uncertainties
Since the market or rather the system gives us no grip hold, we seen to establish ours and most times negative,which leaves us in potential losses

Some people have bought BTC since it was just opened and now they have lost their private-key.
Our forum has a lot of topics talk about regret when it loses private-key. So we need to be cautious about keeping private keys to avoid future regrets.

Everyone is hopeful that all altcoin will recover and it will be very difficult because everyone's belief in this market has dropped a lot in the past time. If we want to repeat the calendar, we need more investors and more news will make investors feel more secure in this market.

These days no entity has the power to read bitcoin price nor to speculate it price surge but only time and research now does. Movement of such funds are more dangerous to the bear market now but the reverse is the case, as the movement in the market never slack movement since last couple of days back. Those funds might be from the Exchange which are held by the owners of such exchange for the purpose of renovation or upgrade of systems.

Maybe,it is from exchange but if it is inactive for too long then chances of whale's wallet is more.Which brought the prices increase happening for the last 24 hours?

Just be patient and let's wait for the more bull to wake up.

It's a good decision that this big amount were not traded in an exchange.
I think that with this amount, you cannot trust exchange on it and it will certainly affect the price that might lessen the value of your expectation.
Those who bought that amount is a whales and maybe one of the reason on the current bullish run now, I hope this is not a trap though.

I say thank you very much for conveying useful information and this news has scared me to trade other bitcoin and crypto, the big whale can reduce the price of bitcoin at any time, preferably I must still be vigilant.

Well that's a good point though i hope you're right lol. Not being a pessimist here but this year's been fooling us with false expectations so it won't hurt to keep neutral about it.

I doubt it was moved to be sold, no one in their right mind would sell that much amount of bitcoin at once. They wouldn't even sell it all in a month or even a year. Even a 30 thousand bitcoin sell off created a trickle that eventually turned into bitcoin losing almost 50% value, if you decide to sell 600k bitcoins all at once than you would lose almost 90% of your portfolio and money.

If you ever wish to sell that much coin you have 2 options, either sell small amounts constantly which would create a pressure on the price and hope that some bull run would happen meanwhile and you can sell on different exchanges all together. Better option would be selling OTC to some rich person on wall street for cheaper than what it is right now for example selling all 608k for 3k each right now and you would be rich but that person could benefit from it in the long run.

I don't think the market has fooled anyone. In fact, I'm sure that people fooled themselves with their unrealistic expectations from a market that's trying to bottom out after one of the wildest bull runs ever.

I cringed every time people back when the price was hovering between $6000-$7000 said that it was very low and we couldn't fall below it due to miners needing $6000 at the very minimum.

The only thing that surprised me is how fast it went down from $6000 to $3000 without any strong rebound attempt. Maybe people were so in panic, that they sold like there was no tomorrow. Brutal sell off it was.

Except it wasn't a whale at all, the coins won't be sold, and the price won't be affected.

All these funds belong to Coinbase, who have recently upgraded their cold storage infrastructure and were moving all their coins from their old cold storage to their new system. These movements were announced a few weeks ago prior to them happening, and they have now announced the movement has finished:

https://blokt.com/news/coinbase-talks-about-the-largest-crypto-transfer-on-record

Thank you very much, if you don't tell me this, I might stop trading bitcoin and other crypto ...,
I think the big whale is preparing to reduce the price of bitcoin at the right time, but I like to hear from you because 608K bitcoin it's not for sale