$26M in Bitcoin Moved On and Off OKEx in Three Transactions

Large transactions are being made to and from OKEx in the past 24 hours. The reasons are still unexplained — although some are claiming it was whales preparing for a large market move while others say that OKEx is just moving around funds in its hot and cold wallets.

Following the Money

The first transfer happened yesterday at 14:49 UTC when 1,000 BTC was moved from an external address onto OKEx. The total transfer was valued at around $8.1M and was recorded by Whale Alert (@whale_alert).

1,000 #BTC (8,178,499 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #OKEx

Tx: https://t.co/piZGToUUWD

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) October 3, 2019

The address which sent this transaction currently still has a whopping balance of 26,543 BTC ($219M). It’s unclear whether this address is related to OKEx. Then, at 20:58 UTC Whale Alerts notified followers of 1,215 BTC (almost $10M) being transferred out of OKEx to an external address.

1,215 #BTC (9,950,937 USD) transferred from #OKEx to unknown wallet

Tx: https://t.co/LYl51iYu5X

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) October 3, 2019

The recipient address seems to be unknown, but currently only holds the BTC that was sent to it. A few smaller transfers of 0.07 BTC or so were also made shortly after from this recipient address. Then, just 20 minutes after, another 1,000 BTC ($8.1M) was transferred onto OKEx from an external address. This batch was sent from the same address as the previous 1,000 BTC transfer.

1,000 #BTC (8,086,707 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #OKEx

Tx: https://t.co/8iv9RWOxaI

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) October 3, 2019

Market Move Incoming?

It’s still unclear what the purpose was behind these major transfers. Some are speculating that it was the movement between OKEx’s cold and hot wallets, but Whale Alert has not flagged the address as belonging to OKEx. It should be noted that OKEX has been criticized for wash trading in the past,  and currently has a reported daily volume of $662M. Multiple reports have detailed how 90% of this volume is likely fake, however, is something the exchange has vehemently denied. Perhaps it would be smart for OKEx to specifically tell Whale Alert and investors about which addresses are their cold wallets. This way, it is clear that these large transfers are standard. As of now, there’s room for speculation, so keep your eye on OKEx. Is a possible market move coming? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.