Coinbase Exec Raises Doubts Over $8.6B Bitcoin Transfer: “Could Be Largest Heist Ever”

     

Coinbase’s Conor Grogan Suggests Dormant BTC Move Might Involve Compromised Keys

Conor Grogan, Coinbase’s head of product, suggested there’s a small chance that the $8.6 billion worth of Bitcoin moved from eight long-dormant wallets could be the result of a security breach.

“If true (again, I’m speculating on straws here), this would be by far the largest heist in human history,” Grogan said in an X post on Friday.

The transactions, which took place on Thursday, involved Bitcoin wallets that had been inactive for over 14 years, each containing 10,000 BTC originally received in 2011 when Bitcoin traded under $1.

Suspicious Bitcoin Cash Activity Raises Red Flags

Grogan pointed to an unusual Bitcoin Cash (BCH) transaction made just before the massive BTC transfers, calling it “suspicious” and suggesting it could have been a private key test by whoever controls the wallets.

“I found a single BCH test transaction from one of the BTC whale clusters 14 hours ago, followed by the full amount. An hour later, the BTC wallets began to move,” he said.

He added that this test might have gone unnoticed due to BCH’s lower on-chain visibility. However, Grogan found it strange that other related BCH wallets remained untouched: “Why wouldn’t they also sweep these?”

$8.6B in Bitcoin Consolidated Into New Wallets

Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham confirmed that the 80,000 BTC — worth around $8.6 billion — originated from eight wallets funded in April and May 2011 and had remained untouched since then.

All of the BTC has now been transferred to eight new addresses, and none of it has moved further.

Despite speculation around the nature of the transactions, Bitcoin’s price remained stable. It dipped just 1.02% in the last 24 hours to around $108,150, according to CoinMarketCap.