Bitcoin Whale Holding Satoshi-Era Stash Moves More Coins to Kraken

The whales are on the move again. 

Data from blockchain firm Arkham Intelligence showed Monday that an “ancient whale” holding Bitcoin for 15 years has moved another chunk of their huge holdings to American crypto exchange Kraken. 

Arkham has been tracking the whale for some time now. At the start of the month, the investor, who got their hands on the Bitcoin in 2009, moved coins worth nearly $3.6 million to Kraken. 

This time, they moved $630,000 in the “digital gold” to the exchange. 

The whale holds a total of 1,139.2 Bitcoin—today priced at $74.5 million. In total, the holder has moved $5.47 million in the past two months to the exchange, Arkham said. 

This whale received the coins during the “Satoshi era” of Bitcoin—when the network went live in 2009 after the pseudonymous creator of the cryptocurrency Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block. This particular user mined Bitcoin just five days after the network went live.

Bitcoin whales are investors who hoard huge amounts of Bitcoin (at least 1,000 BTC, or $67 million worth at today’s price) and don’t touch it for years. 

Such investors make large gains as a result—although whales are more likely to be companies and institutional holders rather than individuals. 

When whales make moves, the price of Bitcoin can drop because industry observers, traders and investors think that a big sale is coming. And when a big sale happens, downwards pressure is put on the asset’s price. In this case, given the small size of the move, the transaction is more noteworthy for the age of the coins than the value.

Edited by Andrew Hayward