Whale activity is picking up steam as a big week in the crypto markets comes to a close.
In a 12-hour span, an anonymous crypto whale moved 16,001 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $140.6 million, from the crypto exchange OKEx to an unknown wallet.
While it’s possible that the whale is OKEx itself moving funds on behalf of its customers, the exchange has not announced plans to move mass funds. The transfers come a day after Bitfinex reportedly moved 123,447 Bitcoin worth $1.1 billion between two of its wallets.
Here’s a look at all of the large OKEx transfers in the last day.
- 3,000 BTC $26.3 million transferred from OKEx to unknown wallet
- 3,000 BTC $26.3 million transferred from OKEx to unknown wallet
- 3,000 BTC $26.6 million transferred from OKEx to unknown wallet
- 3,000 BTC $26.3 million transferred from OKEx to unknown wallet
- 3,000 BTC $26.3 million transferred from OKEx to unknown wallet
- 1,001 BTC worth $8.8 million transferred from OKEx to unknown wallet
Meanwhile, traders are also following a lone crypto whale who moved 27,000,000 XRP worth $6.3 million from the crypto exchange Bithumb to an unknown wallet.
27,000,000 #XRP (6,320,422 USD) transferred from #Bithumb to unknown wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) January 17, 2020
Both Ethereum and XRP whale activity has been limited over the past week.
Regarding the second and third largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, the most talked-about transfer was a movement of 100,000,000 XRP from Ripple. The payments startup, which owns more than half of all XRP in existence, moved the trove of XRP, which is worth $21.8 million, out of an escrow wallet on Tuesday.
The transfer frees up funds for Ripple to sell to institutions over-the-counter and on crypto exchanges. In recent months, Ripple has reduced the amount of XRP it’s selling. In the third quarter of 2019, the company reported selling XRP totaling $66 million, down from $251 million in the second quarter.
Ripple’s fourth quarter report is expected this month.
