Bitcoin worth $8.6 billion moved from old wallets, raising concerns of a possible hack.
- Eight Bitcoin wallets active since 2011 suddenly moved 127,000 BTC.
- Coinbase’s Conor Grogan suspects it could be a massive heist.
- The funds now sit in eight new wallets and haven’t moved again.
Bitcoin Whales Move Funds After 14 Years of Silence
On Thursday, around $8.6 billion in Bitcoin was transferred from eight wallets. These wallets had not been touched for over 14 years. The sudden activity has drawn attention from the crypto community.
Conor Grogan, head of product at Coinbase, said there’s a slight chance the wallets were hacked. If that’s true, it could be the biggest theft in history.
Why Experts Are Suspicious
Grogan explained that before the big Bitcoin move, there was a single Bitcoin Cash (BCH) transaction from one of the same clusters. He thinks this might have been a test to see if the private keys still worked. This happened just 14 hours before the major transfers occurred.
He noted that no other Bitcoin Cash wallets related to the group were touched. That unusual behavior adds to the mystery.
Blockchain Firm Confirms It’s One Entity
The blockchain intelligence company Arkham posted that all the Bitcoin came from a single entity. The coins were first deposited into the wallets in April or May of 2011. Since the transfer, the Bitcoin now sits quietly in eight new wallets.
There is no clear evidence yet of foul play. But the strange series of events has left experts wondering who owns the wallets—or who might control them now.
Bitcoin Price Stays Calm
Despite the news, Bitcoin’s price has only dropped slightly by 1.02% in the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $108,150, according to CoinMarketCap.
Source: cointelegraph.com
