{"id":25150,"date":"2025-07-07T17:40:32","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/8-6-billion-bitcoin-transfer-sparks-debate-over-owners-identity\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T17:40:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:40:32","slug":"8-6-billion-bitcoin-transfer-sparks-debate-over-owners-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/8-6-billion-bitcoin-transfer-sparks-debate-over-owners-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"$8.6 Billion Bitcoin Transfer Sparks Debate Over Owner&#8217;s Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An unknown entity has moved 80,000 BTC worth $8.6 billion from eight wallets inactive for 14 years. The community is debating two main theories: a hack or a planned transfer by the owner.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BILLIONAIRE BITCOIN WHALE UPDATE<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday\u2019s $8 billion transfers were possibly related to address upgrades, moving from 1- addresses to bc1q- addresses.<\/p>\n<p>There are no indications that this whale is selling Bitcoin. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wdK4Ppkv0J\">pic.twitter.com\/wdK4Ppkv0J<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Arkham (@arkham) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arkham\/status\/1941575462293209314?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Initially, two addresses, each holding 10,000 BTC, became active. Later, six more wallets with similar amounts showed activity.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts at Lookonchain suggested that all <a href=\"https:\/\/intel.arkm.com\/explorer\/entity\/1b186a9c-1972-46c8-9de7-d2e8e3db28d7\">eight addresses<\/a> are controlled by a single individual or organization. The coins were deposited into these wallets in April-May 2011.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A Bitcoin OG holding at least 80,009 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%24BTC&#038;src=ctag&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">$BTC<\/a>($8.69B) woke up after 14+ years of dormancy and transferred out 40,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%24BTC&#038;src=ctag&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">$BTC<\/a>($4.35B) today!<\/p>\n<p>This OG controls about 8 wallets, 2 of which received 20,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%24BTC&#038;src=ctag&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">$BTC<\/a>($15,600 at the time, $2.18B now) on April 2, 2011, when the price of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%24BTC&#038;src=ctag&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">$BTC<\/a> was\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/F8jULZ6Ee7\">pic.twitter.com\/F8jULZ6Ee7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lookonchain (@lookonchain) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lookonchain\/status\/1941126810961653780?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The movement of funds has sparked various theories about the owner&#8217;s identity. Sani, the founder of Timechain Index, believes the bitcoins belong to early investor Roger Ver.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I believe the 80K BTC may belong to Roger Ver. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n<p>Sometime last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MrHodl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MrHodl<\/a> was discussing Roger and the potential size of his holdings during a Twitter Space. <br \/>That prompted me to dig into his historical purchase activity. I cross-referenced those dates with my\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sani | TimechainIndex.com (@SaniExp) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SaniExp\/status\/1941244197937480050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Last year, the latter was <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/roger-ver-arrested-for-tax-evasion\">arrested<\/a> in Spain on charges of tax fraud in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Sani suggests the transfer might be part of a deal with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, to which Ver owes about $48 million.<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase&#8217;s Director of Product, Conor Grogan, speculated that the transfers might be <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/expert-suggests-possible-breach-of-bitcoin-wallets-holding-8-6-billion\">related to address hacks<\/a> or the compromise of private keys.<\/p>\n<p>Many community members disagree with Grogan&#8217;s theory, offering several counterarguments.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, hacking a Bitcoin wallet&#8217;s private key with current technology is <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bretep\/status\/1941538421417312389\">virtually impossible<\/a> due to its mathematical complexity.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, a hacker would not risk sending a test transaction in Bitcoin Cash, as it could <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/0xBiZzy\/status\/1941204902841286711\">alert the owner<\/a>. Some experts consider such a transfer a standard procedure in large over-the-counter deals to confirm wallet control.<\/p>\n<p>Thirdly, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/binji_x\/status\/1941193870806745109\">the transfer took about 10 hours<\/a>. A malicious actor would have acted much faster.<\/p>\n<p>Arkham analysts&#8217; main theory is an address upgrade. Most coins were moved from old <span data-descr=\"Pay-to-PubKey-Hash, P2PKH \u2014 start with '1' and are considered outdated. They are vulnerable due to the use of weak random number generators\" class=\"old_tooltip\">Legacy addresses<\/span> to modern bech32.<\/p>\n<p>Ledger&#8217;s CTO, Charles Guillemet, noted that these bitcoins date back to 2011, when modern standards like BIP39 did not exist.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Yesterday, 80,000 BTC (worth roughly $8 billion) were moved on-chain. These coins date back to 2011, before the BIP39 standard existed.<\/p>\n<p>Back then, private keys were managed individually per address, with no hardware wallet support (even today). This suggests the keys were stored\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Charles Guillemet (@P3b7_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/P3b7_\/status\/1941529463994347600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 5, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Private keys were stored in wallet.dat files and signed by software wallets, which by modern standards is insecure.<\/p>\n<p>The address upgrade theory does not explain all transactions. One of the 10,000 BTC transfers was sent to another Legacy address. The owner&#8217;s identity and the exact reasons for the fund movements remain unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, from January to March, about 62,800 BTC, which <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/cryptoquant-observes-awakening-of-dormant-bitcoins\">had lain dormant for over seven years<\/a>, &#8216;woke up&#8217; and changed wallets, according to CryptoQuant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An unknown entity has moved 80,000 BTC worth $8.6 billion from eight wallets inactive for 14 years. The community is debating two main theories: a hack or a planned transfer by the owner. BILLIONAIRE BITCOIN WHALE UPDATE Yesterday\u2019s $8 billion transfers were possibly related to address upgrades, moving from 1- addresses to bc1q- addresses. There [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18,1227],"class_list":["post-25150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitcoin","tag-cryptocurrency-transactions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"84","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}