Bitcoin whales move $3 billion in just six hours

As noted by the Twitter account “Whale Alert,” Bitcoin whales have moved 318,649 BTC (worth more than $3 billion) in just six hours. The interesting thing to note here is that these transactions took place between wallets of unknown origins. This hints that either the bitcoins got transacted in over-the-counter (OTC) sales or the users shifted them to new wallets.

The transactions are as follows:

• 47,454 BTC worth $451.0 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 47,404 BTC worth $450.5 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 47,465 BTC worth $451.1 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 5,400 BTC worth $51.5 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 5,357 BTC worth $51.2 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 5,700 BTC worth $54.5 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 6,400 BTC worth $61.1 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 6,600 BTC worth $63.1 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 6,000 BTC worth $56.8 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 6,000 BTC worth $56.8 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 6,000 BTC worth $56.8 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 6,000 BTC worth $56.8 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 6,200 BTC worth $58.7 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 47,357 BTC worth $448.5 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 6,756 BTC worth $63.8 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 7,000 BTC worth $66.1 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 5,800 BTC worth $54.8 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.
• 49,756 BTC worth $468.4 million transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.

Another point to note here is that the 49,756 BTC transaction, worth $468.5 million had transaction fees worth just $374.98. The Next Web reported that TransferWise would have charged $3,600 in transaction fees to send just $1 million from the US to the Eurozone. According to them:

“If we scale that cost to the amount of Bitcoin sent by today’s whale, we see that TransferWise would’ve charged $1,684,800 to send $468 million, as opposed to under $400.

And they say Bitcoin transactions are expensive...”