The co-founder and chief executive of on-chain data analytics firm CryptoQuant is revealing that a stash of seven-year-old Bitcoin (BTC) linked to the hacking of the Mt. Gox exchange in 2014 is on the move.
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju says that 10,000 Bitcoin from the wallet of now-defunct crypto exchange BTC-e were allegedly moved by criminals, with a small portion of the stash being transferred to the HitBTC trading platform.
“Seven-year-old 10,000 BTC moved today. No surprise, it’s from criminals, like most of the old Bitcoins. It’s the BTC-e exchange wallet related to the 2014 Mt. Gox hack. They sent 65 BTC to HitBTC a few hours ago, so it’s not a government auction or something.”
Asked why the alleged criminals are selling Bitcoin now when the flagship crypto asset has fallen by over 70% from its all-time high, the CryptoQuant CEO says that the old Bitcoin has already appreciated by over 5,500% since 2015.
“Well, they don’t care. It’s 55x profit for them anyway. They got these Bitcoins when the price was $297 in Jan 2015, and the BTC price is $16,617 now, so approximately profit and loss is 5,594%.”
According to the quant analyst, the large Bitcoin stash could increase BTC’s downside risk.
“I’m not saying they’re going to sell all those 10,000 Bitcoins.
We never know when they will sell the rest of the BTC.
What we do know is that 10,000 BTC was moved by criminals and could be potential sell-side liquidity since they sent 0.6% of their assets to exchanges.”
Ki Young has previously said that the movement of old Bitcoin tends to have bearish consequences in most cases.
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