Mysterious Litecoin Whale Moves Over $4 Billion

In the last 24 hours, the Litecoin network has processed just over ~£29,000,000 (34% of total supply) in transactions, which equates to ~$4B+ at current market value. What makes this important is that much of this activity appears to originate from a single entity on the network, and whoever is behind it doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

The entity in question is LeStybDLTWFJRXBP3WTbNWmxe7ZnuHPveN, the 8th largest address by network balance. This whale, which holds ~522,000 pounds ($72 million), appears to be making sporadic payments between $10 and $100,000+ every 5-10 minutes to new and existing addresses, which is expected behavior for the service’s hot wallet. If true, the fact that such a large wallet is being used in this way means it is vulnerable to potential attackers. For comparison, Coinbase has several cold storage wallets, each holding about 300,000 pounds, for security reasons to prevent a single point of failure.

These transactions had change addresses that returned the remaining balance to the same wallet, so technically more than $4 billion was moved despite only being given to the same person. This activity clearly stands out because most exchanges spread hot wallet balances in small amounts across numerous wallets, blending into the network and not drawing attention to themselves.

According to data provided by bitinfocharts, Wallet 8 first appeared on the network on September 28, 2017 at 12:48;23 UTC, holding ~Ł64,000, and held over Ł64,000 in over 10 transactions before eventually reaching the top of the market. moved to a place. This behavior is different from what is currently occurring and is more similar to Litecoin being bought and sold by a single private company rather than an exchange.

There have been a few transactions since then, but the wallets have mostly stayed below £1,000 each. It built up hard and came back to life by January 2021, at one point becoming Litecoin’s fifth-largest holder. It was also around this time that transaction activity in and out of the wallet increased to levels that now total more than 94,000 transactions. Looking at the money moving to the wallet, it appears to be users’ exchange deposits that are being pooled together, and Wallet 8 is now being used as a service, which it wasn’t originally.

Going back further, we see multiple addresses paying £1,000 to Wallet 8 in what appears to be automated behavior, and several other wallets with different values ​​but similar habits. The most notable transaction saw a balance increase of ~800,000 pounds and occurred on April 22, 2021, but this too was eventually moved elsewhere a few weeks later.

It’s clear that whoever is behind Wallet 8 is making a mark on the network, as wallet management and wallet funds continue to be responsible for the largest transactions on the network each day.