$326 Million Crypto Transfer Triggers NEO Panic, Bitcoin Whales Move 19,086 BTC As Market Rebounds

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The team at NEO is working to clear up concern and confusion after whale watchers spotted a transfer of 29,461,168 NEO worth $326 million – which is nearly half of all NEO in existence.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 29,461,168 #NEO (326,156,929 USD) transferred from #Dev Account to unknown wallet

Tx: https://t.co/JVxGc51yqq

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) May 23, 2019

The crypto was moved back to its original account four minutes later, leaving Crypto Twitter wondering just what the China-based smart contract platform is up to.

What. The. Actual. pic.twitter.com/kCFlP2X3bc
— Billy Saurus (@BillySaurus42) May 23, 2019

Several hours later, the team at the NEO Foundation, which owns half of the total supply of NEO, released a statement saying the transfer was routine and planned in advance.

“On May 23rd, NF transferred 5,538,832 newly unlocked NEO to the unlocked address. The remaining 29,461,168 NEO were first sent to a change address before being transferred back to the locked address. This was done to differentiate the transactions for the community’s reference.

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NF would like to reiterate that, as noted in the White Paper, the newly unlocked NEO will not be sold on exchanges. These funds are used to build the NEO ecosystem and support the growth of the community. An article detailing EcoBoost and how these funds are used will be released in the near future.”

?Notice: #NEO Foundation unlocks 5,530,000 $NEO as planned. These funds are used to build the NEO ecosystem and support the growth of the community. #EcoBoost #DEVcommunity

You can find the notice in detail via the link below,https://t.co/wx8lyr48Z2

— Neo Smart Economy (@NEO_Blockchain) May 23, 2019

Meanwhile, whales continue to move millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin with the price of BTC dipping as low as $7,548 before rebounding to $7,834, according to CoinMarketCap. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies has also bounced back in the last 24 hours, from a low of $233.6 billion back to $243.3 billion.

In just the last eight hours, Bitcoin’s biggest wallets have moved 19,086 BTC worth about $146 million.

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Two of the transfers were sent to crypto trading platforms, with the remaining BTC moving between unknown wallets, between crypto exchanges, or from crypto exchanges to unknown wallets.