The same owner could have moved the first 1,000 BTC, as the creation of the addresses occurred on the same day in 2011. The researchers believe that the transfers could relate to Coinbase since leading exchanges always want to acquire old bitcoins.
Two Bitcoin addresses created on July 10th, 2011, recently transferred all their coins for the first time in almost 11 years. Each wallet withdrew 500 BTC, for a total of 1,000 BTC, worth above USD 23 million at the time of the operation.
On the same day, a third Bitcoin address, created on August 12th, 2011, transferred all its coins for the first time in over a decade. That wallet contained 40 BTC, equivalent to USD 1.8 million, as Bitcoin was trading at USD 47,500 at the time of transaction. Therefore, the total transfers of 1,040 BTC exceeded USD 49 million.
The first 1,000 BTC might come from the same owner, as the creation of both addresses occurred on the same day. Besides, the wallet that withdrew the other 40 BTC could have belonged to the same person since they created it about one month later.
Researchers Believe an Exchange Might Have Bought the Bitcoins
One of the transfers of old bitcoins could relate to a wallet associated with the leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The other transaction of 500 BTC indicated that the receiving address also belongs to the platform, according to Bitquery.io.
The recently withdrawn 1,040 BTC follow a very similar pattern, according to researchers from the Telegram channel GFIS and the creator of Btcparser.com. They said that leading exchanges always seek to acquire old bitcoins, for which they might want to own them.
GFSI researchers believe that the ownership of those old bitcoins could allow those exchanges to purify a group of coins of illegal origins. They explained that various anti-money laundering and risk analysis robots could screen them by mixing all of the latter with those from 2010-2011.
According to statistics from amlbot.com, each of the wallets sending 500 BTC had low-risk assessments. The transfer of 40 BTC came from an address that once stored 31,723 BTC and then withdrew the last 101 BTC on May 11th, 2012.
The data on the transaction reveals that the owner of the address paid 0.05437193 BTC in fees. They might have sold the bitcoins in the open market or through over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
The owner of those coins may have moved them, seeking to disperse them in addresses with lower amounts of funds. Until now, no one knows who acquired the old moved bitcoins.
The relevant role of Bitcoin in the world economy is increasingly evident, as many people view it as a long-term store of value. Regulators from several countries have their sights on the pioneering cryptocurrency because they link it to illegal activities like money laundering. For that reason, they usually hire specialists to track the origin of those crypto assets moved suspiciously.
By Alexander Salazar
