Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a major holder of Bitcoin, transferred 894 BTC, valued at $41 million at the time, to the Coinbase Prime deposit wallet on January 12. This information comes from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. The transfer occurred shortly after the trust allowed authorized participants to redeem Bitcoin.
Besides the transfer to Coinbase, an additional $119 million in funds was moved to wallets with no prior transaction history. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is regarded as one of the world's largest Bitcoin holders, with Arkham Intelligence reporting in a September 6 social media post that the trust held over $16 billion in cryptocurrency. The trust's holdings are currently estimated at $27 billion by Arkham, following the recent rise in Bitcoin prices.
GBTC has been trading shares since 2013, but only allowed Bitcoin redemptions from January 11. The shares of GBTC typically trade at a notable discount to their net asset value, reflecting the value of the underlying Bitcoin. For instance, in October, each share's value was 16% less than the Bitcoin it represented. On January 12, a day after multiple Bitcoin ETFs started trading, Arkham Intelligence data indicated that GBTC transferred 894 BTC to Coinbase in a single transaction, and sent another 2,607 BTC to different wallets in three separate transactions. The Coinbase transfer amounted to approximately 0.15% of Grayscale Trust's total holdings, valued at $41 million, while the remaining transfers to other wallets totaled about $119 million, or 0.44% of the trust's holdings.
Napatradamus, commenting on this, suggested that only a fraction of the trust's $28 billion had been moved, indicating a potential downward trend. In support of their claim, they shared a link to Arkham's Grayscale Bitcoin Trust page.
Ran Neuner, host of CNBC’s Crypto Trader, concurred with this view, stating on social media that Bitcoin prices were declining due to people selling off GBTC shares. Neuner cautioned that Bitcoin might experience selling pressure for some time, noting that even if only 20% of the $25 billion is redeemed, it would result in $5 billion worth of market sales.
It's important to note that Grayscale has not publicly disclosed its wallet addresses, so there's a possibility that Arkham might have inaccurately identified which wallets are associated with the trust. This means the actual size of the outflows could be different from what Arkham's data suggests.
