Conor Grogan, head of product at Coinbase, suggested there’s a slim possibility that Thursday’s $8.6 billion Bitcoin transfer — involving funds held for over 14 years across eight wallets by a single whale — may have been the result of a hack.
“If true (again, I’m speculating on straws here), this would be by far the largest heist in human history,” Grogan wrote in an X post on Friday, acknowledging the remote chance that malicious actors were behind the massive movement of funds.
Grogan Puzzled by Unusual Bitcoin Cash Transaction
“There’s a slight chance the $8 billion in BTC that recently became active was the result of a hack or compromised private keys,” said Conor Grogan, referencing a suspicious Bitcoin Cash transaction that preceded Thursday’s massive transfers of 10,000 BTC at a time.
“I spotted a single BCH test transaction from one of the BTC whale clusters about 14 hours ago, followed by the full amount. Then, roughly an hour later, the BTC wallets started moving,” he explained.
Grogan noted that the wallet owner might have been quietly testing the private key, using a Bitcoin Cash transaction to avoid drawing attention from whale-tracking services. Still, he emphasized that the activity struck him as unusual.
“What makes me say this is the other BCH wallets have not been touched at all; why wouldn’t they also sweep these?”
In a post that same day, blockchain intelligence firm Arkham reported that a single entity was behind the movement of $8.6 billion worth of Bitcoin from eight different wallets.
The $8.6 billion in Bitcoin has now been moved into eight newly created wallets
According to Arkham, all of the Bitcoin was originally deposited into the wallets on either April 2 or May 4, 2011, and had remained untouched for over 14 years.
Arkham reported that the Bitcoin is now held in eight new wallets and has not been moved since the transfer.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price has remained relatively steady, slipping 1.02% over the past 24 hours to trade at $108,150 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data.
