A whale that has been silent for 14 years has awakened, creating huge ripples on-chain. Earlier today (15th), an unmarked mysterious address 'bc1qq…atjty' transferred 20,000 bitcoins worth $2.34 billion into Galaxy Digital, once again shocking the crypto community.
According to on-chain data platform Nansen, these 20,000 bitcoins began to be transferred at 9:30 this morning, divided into 7 transactions, with each transfer ranging from 500 to 4,500 bitcoins. The last transaction transferred 3,160 bitcoins around 1:30 PM, thereby emptying the 'ancient wallet.'
The on-chain analysis platform Onchain Lens identified that the owner of this 'ancient wallet' is indeed the 'old giant whale' who transferred 80,000 bitcoins just last Friday, and this action of transferring into Galaxy Digital is also seen by Onchain Lens as the old giant whale's 'first record of cashing out.'
The #Satoshi-era whale, who holds 80,000 $BTC, has just deposited 9,000 $BTC worth $1.06B into #GalaxyDigital.
This marks the first cash-out in his $BTC history.
Address: bc1qq8qvezre6d0fw3q4ht03rj029y4d8ylh7atjty pic.twitter.com/VajPFgZSlp
— Onchain Lens (@OnchainLens) July 15, 2025
As for who the 'old giant whale' is and why they chose to make such a significant transfer of bitcoins at this time, it has already sparked numerous speculations. The on-chain data platform Arkham Intelligence has speculated that the large transfers may be related to wallet address upgrades; while Coinbase product manager Conor Grogan believes that these 80,000 bitcoins seem to be held by an early miner.
However, choosing to transfer bitcoins at a time when prices are frequently reaching new highs, and doing so through institutional platforms like Galaxy Digital, raises suspicions that this is not merely a technical operation but rather a strategic profit-taking move.
Benefiting from the aggressive influx of institutional funds and positive expectations regarding cryptocurrency legislation in the United States, Bitcoin strongly broke through $122,000 on Monday, hitting a new historical high, but the upward momentum showed signs of fatigue in the evening, and by the time of writing, it had fallen back to around $117,000, down 4.4% in the past 24 hours.
"The 'ancient giant whale' has transferred 20,000 bitcoins! The inflow into Galaxy Digital is suspected to be 'cash-out selling.'" This article was first published on (Blockkey).
