Galaxy Digital, a company that offers institutional investments in digital assets, announced last night the successful execution of one of the largest detected bitcoin (BTC) transactions in cryptocurrency history on behalf of a client.
In a statement, the company announced that it completed the sale of more than 80,000 BTC, valued at over $9 billion (USD), to a Satoshi-era investor.
The move "represents one of the earliest and most significant exits from the digital asset market," Galaxy Digital emphasized.
He noted that the transaction was part of the broader estate planning strategy of this long-time investor in the market.
While the firm did not share on-chain data to verify the transaction, did not reveal the identity of the investor, or when it acquired such possession and made the sale, a message shared by the research firm Lookonchain last week warned of this possible operation on the way.
“The OG Bitcoin holding 80,009 BTC ($9.4 billion) appears to be selling off! In the last hour, he transferred 9,000 BTC ($1.06 billion) to Galaxy Digital, likely preparing to sell via their services,” Lookonchain noted at the time, according to on-chain data seen on Intel Arkm.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin has remained trading around $118,000, showing stability in this area despite the selling, after reaching an all-time high of $122,000 at the beginning of last week.
"This news would have ruined the market five years ago. Today, it's barely moved," commented analysts like Joe Consorti, referring to the 80,000 BTC sale by the whale from the era of Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, which was launched in 2009.
According to an analysis by Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of on-chain research platform CryptoQuant, the 80,000 BTC sold were acquired 14 years ago from wallets originally hosted on the MyBitcoin exchange.
"The wallets had been inactive since April 2011, before MyBitcoin collapsed in a July hack. They likely belong to the hacker or the anonymous founder known as Tom Williams," he said.
If this is indeed the case, this is one of the most profitable transactions in history. At the time, Bitcoin was estimated to have been worth just $2, which means the value of this whale's investment increased more than 55,000 times.
