$8.6B Bitcoin whale transfer shows no signs of sell-off: Arkham

Arkham says the massive Bitcoin whale transfer might be due to a wallet upgrade, but others in the industry have their own theories.

Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham says the recent $8.6 billion in Bitcoin that was moved on Thursday for the first time in over 14 years doesn’t appear to be heading for a sell-off.

“There are no indications that this whale is selling Bitcoin,” Arkham said in an X post on Friday. Arkham added that the eight transfers — which moved 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC) at a time from eight wallets that were untouched for over 14 years — may be possibly due to the owner upgrading from the original legacy wallet to a Native SegWit address, which is said to have improved security and lower fees.

“Yesterday’s $8 billion transfers were possibly related to address upgrades, moving from 1-addresses to bc1q-addresses,” Arkham said.