Bitcoin Buyer Quietly Accumulates $424M of BTC in 3 Weeks
The unknown entity acquired 875 bitcoin on Wednesday alone, prompting online speculation over who the buyer might be.
Nov 29, 2023 at 4:58 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/UP7FOFJU4VATHPLFQ36OPVMAOU)
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The owner of one mystery wallet has purchased 11,268 bitcoin (BTC) worth $424 million since November 10 and is now the 74th largest holder of BTC, according to Bitinfocharts.
The buys – which include 875 tokens acquired today – were made at prices ranging from $36,000 to $38,000, meaning the owner is sitting on around $9.8 million in unrealized profits at bitcoin's current price just below that $38,000 level.
There's been some online speculation that the wallet could be tied to one of a number of U.S. asset management giants hoping to soon be granted regulatory permission to launch a spot bitcoin ETF, though it's not clear if such "frontrunning" is even allowed.
Nevertheless, if a spot ETF is approved, fund managers will be required to hold and custody a large quantity of bitcoin in order to meet potential demand. This is unlike synthetic products like CME futures, which involve trading of contracts that represent the underlying asset.
VanEck advisor Gabor Gurbacs said Wednesday that a spot ETF being approved would create "trillions in value" even with just minimal demand of around $20 billion to $30 billion.
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Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.