Bitcoin’s Third Largest Wallet Changed Hands, But Onchain Data Shows It’s Likely To Be The Same Owner – Featured Bitcoin News

Last year and during the first half of 2022, speculators assumed that the third largest bitcoin address was a ‘mysterious whale’, although the wallet had shown strong characteristics of being a cryptocurrency exchange. The address known as “1P5ZED” has since been replaced by another address, after the wallet began transferring its entire bitcoin balance in mid-July 2022. The bitcoin address “1LQoW” is now the third largest wallet today, and it is very likely the owner of the 1LQoW wallet is the same entity that managed the 1P5ZED wallet.

The third largest Bitcoin wallet changed to a new address, a wallet likely controlled by the same owner

After bitcoin’s price rose to new highs in November 2021, there was a significant amount speculation regarding the third largest bitcoin wallet known as “1P5ZED.” Rumors about the wallet plagued social media and some people mistakenly attributed the wallet to Microstrategy’s stash of BTC.

So after the rumors were debunked, blockchain watchers noticed that 1P5ZED moved all his bitcoins in mid-July. Blockchain records show that by the end of June 2022, the 1P5ZED address was down to 0.01257 BTC. In 2021, when Bitcoin.com News reported on 1P5ZED, a source with “access to blockchain analysis tools (Chainalysis and Ciphertrace) as part of the job function” told our news desk:

There is almost a 100% chance that both addresses in your article, both 1P5ZED and 1FzWLk, belong to Gemini.

The 1P5ZED wallet had also shown signs of exchange patterns such as cluster spending. Furthermore, the block explorer oxt.me highlights two notes, which assume that the “1P5ZED” bitcoin address may have been linked to the exchange Bittrex.

However, after the removal of more than 132,000 BTC in mid-July and late June, data still indicates that the wallet is still likely associated with the Gemini crypto exchange. Although analysts cannot identify the exact owner of 1P5ZED, onchain data, clustering and heuristics show that 1P5ZED simply changed hands (addresses), but the owner remains the same.

Despite Speculation, Bitcoin’s Third Largest Wallet Is Not a ‘Mystery Whale’ or ‘New Market Player’ – Onchain Data Points to a US-Based Crypto Exchange

The third largest bitcoin wallet today, “1LQoW” has a balance of more than 140,000 BTC, and the wallet is connected to 1P5ZED and “1FzWLk.” As we noted in our previous reports, 1FzWLk traded with 1P5ZED on a number of occasions, and so did 1LQoW. It appears that the now empty 1FzWLk wallet dispersed the funds to other addresses including 1LQoW. Data further shows that 1FzWLk’s transactions were often associated with well-known Gemini exchange wallets and the current third richest bitcoin wallet today 1LQoW.

As usual, posts in social media and crypto publications identified 1LQoW as a new ‘mystery whale’ or new mega player on the market. OXT researcher Ergo BTC tweeted about the address in July and August 2022. “1LQoW was first seen a few weeks ago, receiving its first [transaction] in a batch withdrawal from Coinbase,” Ergo tweeted on July 19. “There are 2 outgoing [transactions] is back to 1FzWL, implying that this address is at least associated with and possibly co-owned by 1P5Zs/1FzWL/key rotation? In other words, not ‘selling’.” Speculated if it was Coinbase Custody or not, Ergo wrote:

Coinbase Custody: Benefits: On Adjacent and First Inflow to 1LQoW. Cons: The first one seen on 1FzWL doesn’t quite match the Coinbase Custody announcement.

Ergo also talked about the bitcoin wallet 1LQoW on August 2, 2022, when a lot of speculative reporting started to increase after the 1P5ZED myths before. “Crypto tabloids and clickbaiters have gone from ‘1P5Z is dumping all its coins’ to ‘1LQoW is a new whale who bought $1.64 billion from nowhere. ‘lmao,” Ergo tweeted. Onchain data also confirms that 1LQoW is not a new ‘megawhale’ or ‘market player’ who just suddenly took the third largest bitcoin wallet from 1P5ZED.

1LQoW is most likely a US-based crypto manager or exchange, and we cannot say for 100% sure that it is a Gemini-associated BTC wallet. Disadvantages include the fact that the wallet does not match Gemini’s bitcoin reserve data hosted on cryptoquant.com and other reserve data sites such as Glassnode. The statistics from cryptoquant.com’s Gemini-associated bitcoin reserve data show that Gemini’s stash is around 136,923 BTC. The third largest BTC address 1LQoW has approximately 140,664 BTC (as of 14:00 ET on December 4, 2022). Coinglass.com data shows that Gemini’s BTC reserve is estimated to be around 132,102 BTC today, which is also an anomaly.

What do you think about the relationship between wallets 1P5ZED, 1FzWLk and the current third largest bitcoin wallet 1LQoW? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.