Whales at play: Anonymous investor buys $400 million USD worth of Bitcoin

An anonymous trader has managed to shock markets through a massive investment of some $400 million USD into Bitcoin – totaling a sum of some 92,347 BTC stored in a single online address at the time of writing.

Blockchain information reveals that the account, which was largely inactive before the 12th of December, began its illustrious career by purchasing some 48,627 BTC in a single day – a rough investment of $827 million USD at the time.

Forbes reports that the trader in question continued investing on February 12th, where subsequent purchases raised the investor’s (then) stake from some 55,000 coins to new heights of 96,000 BTC.

A new mystery

It remains unknown as to who – or what – the investor in question might be. Studies conducted by HowMuch.net reveal that just 4.11% of Bitcoin wallet addresses own as much as 96.53% of the cryptocurrency’s supply.

Research from Blocklink indicates that an estimated sum of 250 Bitcoin wallet addresses comprising 0.001% percentile of all wallet addresses each have a minimum wealth of more than 7,021 BTC.

For parity, the 1% – or most wealthy – Bitcoin wallet addresses would have little more than 15 BTC stored within.

You need 15 Bitcoins to be in the Top 1%.https://t.co/kl5m5lDEP1 pic.twitter.com/jKq7yuedwd

— BambouClub (@BambouClub) September 2, 2017

A strong case could be made that the investor who deigned to splurge some $400 million USD on Bitcoin might well be an institution or conglomerate of people.

Well-known Bitcoin magnates Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are now estimated to own $1 billion USD worth of Bitcoin thanks to an initial $11 million USD investment in 2013. Satoshi Nakamoto, of course, remains Bitcoin’s most mysterious ‘whale’ – retaining control of some 980,000 BTC which soars ever closer to new heights.

In terms of enterprise, a recent survey conducted by Citrix shows that nearly half of all surveyed, large-scale British businesses hold cryptocurrency portfolios – surprisingly, only 4% of firms holding cryptocurrencies offered that they were holding portfolios as a ready ransom in the event of a ransomware attack.

38% of all surveyed firms disclosed that they would consider selling their portfolio at some stage for profit – indicating that the anonymous investor’s recent plunge might well represent a new business believer in Bitcoin.

Whales at play

Regardless of whomever – or whatever – the purchaser is, the trader in question can look set for a profit. The transaction has arrived as a rallying cry for bullish investors,  who have argued that the development marks a new $6,000 USD floor for Bitcoin.

In a statement to MarketWatch, Jeff Koyen, president of 360 Blockchain USA, quipped that “the $400 million whale is fuel for the Telegram channels where traders lay out their conspiracy theories… However, I am willing to believe that, seeing bitcoin bottom around $6,000, Wall Street smelled blood and jumped back in”. 

Have your say!

Who – or what – could the mysterious investor be? Be sure to let us know your opinion on Twitter – join the conversation @coininsidercom!