(Article updated at 10:30 PM EST to note new details indicating this may not be a new purchase)

A mysterious so-called investor spent or transferred more than $3 billion, or nearly 133,000 Bitcoin on August 10, making a new wallet one of the three largest individual Bitcoin holders. Community ratings of wallet activity suggest that the new wallet might be a former player who is just moving funds.

A Twitter user said they tracked the wallet address and claimed that the mysterious investor is a long-time buyer who moved 130,000 Bitcoins to another wallet in multiple transactions.

According Data as of June 2022, Satoshi Nakamoto is the largest holder of Bitcoin among all individuals, exchanges, governments and companies. It is estimated that Nakamoto mined over 22,000 blocks, each with a reward of 50 BTC, after the launch of Bitcoin in 2009. Estimates suggest that Nakamoto holds over 1.1 million Bitcoins in nearly 22,000 different wallets.

Biggest Bitcoin Holders

Besides Nakamoto, the largest holder of Bitcoin is the asset management company Grayscale which holds nearly 683,480 Bitcoins. Crypto exchange giant Binance follows Grayscale as the second-largest Bitcoin holder across all categories. With around 447,197 Bitcoins, Binance also ranks first among crypto exchanges that hold Bitcoin.

Almost all individual Bitcoin holders have unknown identities except for the Winklevoss Twins. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss invested the millions they earned from a lawsuit against Facebook in bitcoin and became the first bitcoin billionaires. Apparently they hold 1% of all Bitcoins in circulation. They rank third among individuals with the largest Bitcoin holdings.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is also valued to be among the biggest holders, as his net worth is $96 billion. He admitted that his crypto holdings make up most of his net worth and that he only holds Bitcoin as an investment.

Based on the chart above, the mysterious investor who bought 113,000 Bitcoins placed himself just behind Nakamoto as the second individual with the largest Bitcoin holdings.

Is the bearish sentiment changing?

As soon as the winter market started, the biggest Bitcoin holders started selling off. The trend has continued since early May 2022. As the biggest holders continued to exit the markets, crypto enthusiasts with no significant amount to save for investing took to collecting Bitcoin. Investors with less than 10 Bitcoins are called “Shrimps” and buy while prices are affordable.

According to Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz, Shrimp may be on the right path. He recently identified the stages of crypto bear markets and said that price stagnation will cause investors to exit the market. However, those who resist and stay in the market will be the real winners in crypto in the long run.

Bitcoin prices suffered during the coldest crypto winter in history. However, the price of Bitcoin broke above $24,000 on August 10, after a long stretch.