For months, our news desk has been following in the footsteps of a mysterious whale from 2010, a miner who not only mined thousands of Bitcoin, but also spent over 8,000 Bitcoin in the past ten months. This week, Russian blockchain researcher Issak Shvarts released a report on the decade-old block rewards. He claims to have provided “full evidence” that the bitcoins are now owned by Coinbase and will continue to be distributed after the transfers.
The Fall of the Mysterious Block Reward Spending 2010
For some time now, our news desk at news.Bitcoin.com has been monitoring a strange bitcoin (BTC) Whale who issued coins mined in 2010. The bitcoins were mined a decade ago and have never been moved since the day the block rewards were discovered. However, over the course of 2020 and through 2021, news.Bitcoin.com recorded a total of 7,000 BTC that mysteriously moved after ten years. Our team has worked with researchers at Btcparser.com and we also discussed the topic with the Russian blockchain researcher and the author of the Telegram channel. “gfoundinshit, ”Issak Shvarts.
Shvarts also used the parser Btcparser.com and the Blockchain Explorer oxt.me. The researcher believes he has 100% proven that the old-school bitcoins are now owned by Coinbase and have even been distributed to the customers of the San Francisco exchange. Shvarts has also tracked a total of 8,000 BTC, which is worth over $ 250 million at today’s exchange rates.
“I previously suggested that these bitcoins belong to Coinbase,” explains Shvarts in its latest issue report. “Now I’m sure,” he added.
His research study suggests that there is a consolidation of 20 wallets, 50 BTC each for one address. Then the 1,000 BTC Wallet is scattered in batches of 10 BTC per address, Shvarts describes them as “bags to take off”. Some of the BTC Shvarts insists, “apparently for some VIP users,” he said.
Shvarts compared the addresses of a withdrawal from Coinbase with one of the 10 BTC Addresses derived from the original 1,000 BTC Address. The clustering mechanism clearly shows that “these wallets are part of the Coinbase exchange,” notes Shvarts.
The researcher adds:
As you can see, the clustering methods indicate oxt.me and the clustering methods that they belong to Coinbase. Analogous to this: “If it runs like a duck, croaks like a duck and looks like a duck,” I can now say with confidence that all of these bitcoins from 2010 belong to the Coinbase exchange.
Brightening the gray ecosystem
After Shvarts explains that there could be many possible theories associated with this entity, he asks, “How many more [whale miners from the early days] wait in the wings? “Shvarts also states that these coins are” virgin bitcoins “that are” crystal clear in terms of money laundering. “
“Oddly enough, Coinbase just” injects “them into the market and uses them for retail withdrawals,” emphasizes Shvarts’ study. “That way, the entire gray Bitcoin ecosystem becomes a little white. Whether this is some kind of cunning plan or just so that the exchange is not accused of using “gray” coins – I don’t know, ”adds Shvarts.
The only proven fact Shvarts said is that these coins were discovered and passed to addresses on Coinbase during the course of 2020 and early 2021. Then the 1,000 bitcoin stacks are simply sent to the “exchange payout system”. The onchain researcher believes that “another whale from 2010” is also moving coins, but is slightly smaller than the 8,000-coin megawale.
“For some reason [the smaller whale] moves its coins with a slight delay from moving the coins described in this report, ”Shvarts concludes.
What do you think of the report that 8,000 bitcoins from 2010 were sent to Coinbase and later sold on the open market? Let us know what you think on this matter in the comments section below.
Photo credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, oxt.me
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