Cryptocurrency sleuths point to Robinhood as Dogecoin whale

[Hydrogen]

There’s a prime suspect as to the identity of the owner of the world’s biggest Dogecoin cryptocurrency wallet and it’s a name that should be familiar: Robinhood Markets.

The timing of the creation of the initial digital wallet used for storage in June 2018 tracks with Robinhood’s offering Dogecoin trading to its customers in July of that year. That’s according to blockchain data tracker Elliptic and echoed by online sleuths on Reddit’s Dogecoin forum.

“It almost certainly belongs to Robinhood,” said Tom Robinson, chief scientist and co-founder of Elliptic. “The timings of its creation, and the creation of the addresses that it received funds from, match the timings of Robinhood’s support of Dogecoin.”

Dogecoin has surged more than 950% since the beginning of the year from less than half a penny to more than five cents per coin as Reddit users have flocked to the cryptocurrency based on the meme of a smiling Shiba Inu.

The owner of the wallet, which controls nearly 29% of Dogecoin in circulation, became a subject of attention after Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted that “too much concentration” is the cryptocurrency’s only real issue before saying he’d pay the biggest holders to “void their accounts.”

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1361094185412100096

Musk tweeted his suspicion Tuesday that Robinhood could be the biggest holder then later supported calls for Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev to explain the broker’s previous decisions to curb trading in GameStop Corp. shares and Dogecoin during January’s market mania.



As attention ramped up Wednesday around who was the owner of the largest Dogecoin wallet, Robinhood tweeted that it would not confirm what addresses belong to them.

https://twitter.com/RobinhoodApp/status/1362143075485671424

A spokeswoman for Robinhood didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/forex/cryptocurrency-sleuths-point-to-robinhood-as-dogecoin-whale/articleshow/81082872.cms

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This appears to put Elon Musk's comments on dogecoin holders voiding their accounts into the proper context.

It may also explain how robinhood might be a target of an investigation aside from gamestop concerns.

Although its not perfectly clear whether their dogecoin market positions might constitute insider trading or another SEC violation in this regard.

[jackg]

If they're just holding it then I don't think there's much of an issue. I expect doge coin to drop back down to 50 sats and if they haven't moved funds by then/or done some sort of weird insider trading then it's probably fine. There's the possibility that doge coins chain is a bit like bitcoin cash where a 51% attack can occur (it shares the same algorithm as litecoin).

Did PayPal not buy its bitcoin before retail could buy it from them though also? I don't think they've been probed...



I don't think Musk has the funds to be able to get people to "void" their wallets. let's hope he doesn't make and market his own coin as I imagine all the people simping over him will probably flock to it in their stupidity

Most of the "concentration" I'd imagine is also from accumulators in China and I'd imagine them not getting scammed (and probably being protected by it from him). It's also quite bold for a person with great wealth concentration to complain about others with great wealth concentration . It's almost like he's complaining he didn't buy the dip... 

[dothebeats]

If they're just holding and not doing something shady with it, I don't think there's a reason why they should get checked for the holdings that they have. They got in into the doge party before a lot of heads did, and I think that does not hold them accountable for anything, especially with trade violations and whatnot that they did on the GME stock. At this point, the Reddit mob together with Twitter are just pinning faults @ Robinhood for being an asshole over what happened to the GME stock, up to the point that even the dogecoin scenario is being used against them albeit not having sufficient evidence of doing illegal trade practices and whatnot.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

The owner of the wallet, which controls nearly 29% of Dogecoin in circulation

Holeeeey shit that's a lot of doge for any one wallet to have in it, or for any one entity to even think about owning.  No wonder doge has been pumped up like a hot air balloon as of late.  But even if you're an exchange listing doge, there's no reason to have that much on hand (at least none that I can think of). 

And if Robinhood is somehow speculating and/or manipulating doge on its own, they better pray for success on that one.  Doge has had its good moments over the years, but it always seems to return to about 20 sats/doge.  It's not a great long-term investment coin, and that's because there's way too much supply and nowhere near enough demand for it.  I'm thinking that someone is going to be left holding a big bag of deflated doge when this all settles down, whether it's Robinhood or someone else.  Yikes.

[Cryptoheavy]

Why people still want to use RH after all this bad news about it?

[oHnK]

Controlling 29%, that's a huge sum for the investment world. The price game can only be used by the holders of this 29%. By being controlled by an institution, prices will not move naturally. Any issue that develops will easily factor into the firm's price. In fact, supply and demand can be influenced by many factors. It's not just an issue that whales control. And those who own 29%, definitely have that privilege.

[Sterbens]

This is the impact when a clear game has confused us between Elon and Robinhood. both of them contributed to each other's pumping DogeCoin at that time. So I saw that if they don't make a decision soon, DogeCoin will eventually fall to 100 satoshi ... well to be exact back to 30 satoshi ... damn, it is so unnatural to see DogeCoin being pumped so easily.

[sgenuine]

This is the impact when a clear game has confused us between Elon and Robinhood. both of them contributed to each other's pumping DogeCoin at that time. So I saw that if they don't make a decision soon, DogeCoin will eventually fall to 100 satoshi ... well to be exact back to 30 satoshi ... damn, it is so unnatural to see DogeCoin being pumped so easily.

First, Elon Musk states that he considers the main problem of digital assets to be excessive concentration and offers to pay real dollars to the largest investors who cancel their wallets. Now Musk has publicly speculated that Robinhood may be Dogecoin's largest holer. Some kind of game is going on. Is everything that happens to be taken seriously?
Elon Musk himself stated that his tweets to the Dogecoin account are the same memes as the coin itself. Although I must admit that watching Musk's jokes is very interesting.