Even before the cryptocurrency boom happened, there was a major crypto exchange known as BTC-e. The particular crypto exchange mainly targeted the cryptocurrency community-based in Russia.
However, the exchange was forcefully shut down by the United States. All of its operations, including the trading platform, and the rest had to be seized because the exchange’s main servers were based in the US.
10,000 BTC Move Out of BTC-e Wallet
Just recently, one of the wallets belonging to the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange showed unusual activity. It was reported that a huge batch of 10,000 BTC had left the wallet.
At the time of writing, the recorded number of BTC for the batch is worth $165 million. The data tracking firms have revealed that the large has been distributed among multiple sources.
The entire activity took place on November 23 and it see the BTC batch being distributed to multiple personal wallets, exchanges, and other sources as well.
Information Shared by Chainalysis
The report from Chainalysis has revealed it is for the first time since 2018 that such a large BTC transaction has taken place from BTC-e.
The last time a huge transaction was seen leaving the defunct exchange was back in April 2018.
Chainalysis has also claimed that the exchange seems to be sending funds over to Webmoney, an electronic payments services firm from Russia.
The information gathered by Chainalysis shows that BTC-e, and WEX, which is considered the successor of BTC-e, have been sending funds to Webmoney.
The latest transactions these firms made to Webmoney were back on October 26. In all of the instances, small amounts of Bitcoins have been sent over to the Russian payment services company.
A Large Batch Still Remains on the Wallet
Although 10,000 BTC have already left the particular BTC-e wallet, it still has a total of 9,950 BTC left.
There is no knowing what the platform may do next. Whether the funds are to remain dormant or move out just like the 10,000 BTC batch.
Chainalysis has also confirmed that the large sub-batches of the 10,000 BTC batch have been sent over to two major cryptocurrency exchanges. These exchanges are HitBTC and Mt. Gox, a crypto exchange in Japan.
The largest quantity of BTCs from the suspicious batch has been sent over to Mt. Gox. Even Cryptoquant, another highly reputable on-chain data analytical firm, has confirmed that 70% of the total BTCs were sent to Mt. Gox.
Although it is just a transaction it holds very high significance for the entire BTC market. In the past 24 hours, the trading price of BTC has recovered a bit and it is currently at $16,422.21.
If the BTCs being moved to different sources are sold, it could launch a selling spree for Bitcoin. This may bring BTC value down to $12,000.
