Largest Heist Ever? Coinbase Exec Explains Why The Mysterious $8 Billion BTC Transfer Was Possibly A Hack
On Thursday, a single entity made headlines by transferring an astonishing $8.6 billion worth of Satoshi-era Bitcoin from eight addresses that had held onto the BTC fortune for over 14 years. The enigmatic movement has left the cryptocurrency community bewildered and sparked speculation about the possibility of a hack. Conor Grogan, director of America's largest crypto exchange Coinbase, shed light on this mysterious event during a post on Twitter (aka X), hinting that there is a small possibility that the $8 billion BTC transfer was caused by a hack.
Grogan pointed out a suspicious Bitcoin Cash (BCH) transaction of over 10,000 tokens, valued at roughly $5 million at current prices, made before the main transfers involving 80,000 Bitcoin began. This move raised the likelihood of someone accessing legacy private keys and quietly testing them before commencing the massive BTC movements. "There is a possibility that the owner was testing the private key in a way that wouldn't get noticed," Grogan observed. "BCH isn't monitored heavily by whale-watching services."
The pundit stressed that he saw this behavior as unusual, citing that all of the Bitcoin was moved into the original wallets on April 2 or May 4, 2011, and had remained untouched for over 14 years after initially receiving the coins in what is now colloquially known as the network's "Satoshi era." This period refers to the pseudonymous creator's activity online when the network was still in its early stages. No individual or company has publicly claimed ownership of these wallets, leaving onlookers puzzled by the timing and scope of the transfers.
Enormous fund movements by OG wallets often hint at incoming selling pressure, but in this case, the Bitcoin is still sitting in the eight new wallets and hasn't been deposited into exchange addresses. This has led some to wonder if there might be more to this story than meets the eye. Despite the uncertainty, Bitcoin was recently trading hands at $108,029 per coin, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko, after barely changing over a 24-hour timeframe.
The leading cryptocurrency is about 3.4% down from its lifetime high of $111,814 it registered in May. As the cryptocurrency community continues to grapple with this enigmatic event, one thing is clear: the mysterious $8 billion BTC transfer has set off alarm bells and raised questions about the security of even the largest crypto exchanges.