$8.6B Bitcoin Whale Transfer Shows No Signs of Sell-Off: Arkham

Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham has confirmed that the recent $8.6 billion Bitcoin transaction, executed on Thursday—the first such move in over 14 years—shows no signs of being linked to a sell-off.

“There are no indications that this whale is selling Bitcoin,” Arkham stated on social media platform X on Friday. The firm noted that the eight transfers, each moving 10,000 Bitcoin from wallets that had remained untouched since 2011, may have been part of an upgrade from legacy wallets to Native SegWit addresses, which offer enhanced security and lower transaction fees.

Arkham: Bitcoin Transfer “Possibly Related” to Wallet Upgrade

“Yesterday’s $8 billion transfers were possibly related to address upgrades, moving from 1-addresses to bc1q-addresses,” Arkham explained.

Arkham revealed that the Bitcoin in question had originally been deposited into these wallets on either April 2 or May 4, 2011, and had not moved in more than 14 years. Now, the assets sit in eight newly created wallets, with no further movement observed since the transfer.

On the same day, blockchain research firm 10x Research weighed in, noting that while there is no direct evidence of a pending sell-off, they believe early holders may be gradually offloading Bitcoin into ETF and corporate treasury demand. This trend, they argue, has been unfolding over time.

Crypto Community Reactions

The transactions sparked widespread discussion across the crypto industry, drawing a range of reactions.

Conor Grogan, Head of Product at Coinbase, floated a more unsettling possibility. He speculated that a hack might have triggered the transfer—though he emphasized that this was pure conjecture. “If true (again, I’m speculating on straws here), this would be by far the largest heist in human history,” Grogan wrote on X.

Taking a more humorous tone, former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao joked about the timing. “I got into crypto too late,” Zhao said, adding, “After seeing the 2011 whales casually moving crypto they got for $0.1.”