Brothers, let's gather around! 80,000 Bitcoins stolen by hackers 14 years ago were suddenly sold with the help of Wall Street giant Galaxy Digital, under the guise of estate planning. Even more outrageous is that this batch of coins is directly linked to the infamous MyBitcoin exchange theft case from 2011, where the founder made off with the money. Now, this batch of coins has surged 130,000 times, making it arguably the most successful money laundering case in history!
Today, let's uncover the truth: why did a $9 billion sell-off not crash the market?
Many people ask: with such a large sell-off, why didn’t Bitcoin plummet?
To be honest, I was confused at first, but when I dug into the on-chain data, the truth came to light:
Institutions became the "white knights": Giants like BlackRock and Fidelity accumulated 900,000 BTC through ETFs over six months, equivalent to buying $50 million worth daily. The market has already been supported by institutions, turning it into a "sponge."
OTC trading goes stealthy: Galaxy quietly sold through over-the-counter channels without placing orders on exchanges, so retail investors felt no impact at all.
Cycle theory is outdated: The old script of whales selling → retail investors buying → crash has been completely broken by institutions holding long positions. As the CEO of CryptoQuant said: the cycle is dead; institutions are the new market makers.
The key question arises: financial institutions have an obligation to investigate the source of funds. Did Galaxy really not do due diligence? If this batch of coins is illicit funds, they may face three major risks:
1. Anti-money laundering investigation: The SEC and FinCEN could knock on the door at any time.
2. Asset freeze: Referencing the Bitfinex case, the U.S. Department of Justice can directly seize assets.
3. Reputation collapse: If Wall Street discovers they helped hackers launder money, their trust will go to zero.
Three major strategies for getting rich
1. Short-term sniper: Keep an eye on the movements of sleeping whales.
Set up large transfer alerts with Arkham; once a dormant address over 10 years old is activated, volatility will surely spike. At that time, play options, such as buying call/put options, and potential returns could double.
2. Compliance bettor: Bet on the laundering channel.
Compliance platforms like Galaxy will see a surge in demand for handling "gray estates" in the future. Directly buy COIN (Coinbase stock) or IBIT (Bitcoin ETF) to reap the benefits from business explosion.
3. Storm arbitrageur: Pick up money in the regulatory storm.
Long the BTC volatility index (BTC VIX) while buying MicroStrategy (MSTR) call options. Why? When regulation tightens, small institutions will all be wiped out, while the leaders (like MSTR) can monopolize the laundering benefits, and stock prices are bound to rise.
