Disclaimer: A Binance spokesperson has since clarified that this was not a Bitcoin purchase but a transfer from its storage to the below-mentioned wallet. They stated, “It’s a regular transfer rather than purchasing new BTC, when Binance issues BTC on Binance chain or Binance smart chain, Binance will hold the original BTC as collateral.”
Bitcoin billionaires continue to accumulate during the dip. As Bitcoin (BTC) filled the $42,000 December price wick this morning, Bitcoin whales were busy stacking sats.
One address belonging to Binance added 43,000 BTC on Tuesday at an average price of $46,553.68, bringing the wallet's total value to $5.5 billion.
Elsewhere, the third-largest Bitcoin address continued its spending spree, adding another 551 BTC since Cointelegraph last reported it bought the dip, just two days ago. The wallet continues to aggressively accumulate in the $40,000 range, now owning a total of 121,396 BTC or roughly $5 billion.
There was some consternation on social media platforms about the wallet owner behind the $43,000 BTC buy, but Binance confirmed ownership of the address in a tweet sent out in 2019.
For $BTCB, the $BTC reserve address is: 3LYJfcfHPXYJreMsASk2jkn69LWEYKzexb
— Binance (@binance) June 17, 2019
We have just reserved 9001 BTC and minted 9001 BTCB. https://t.co/344lxlqsMa
A trading pair on #Binance .com for BTCB/BTC will follow in a day or so, and we will issue a proposal on @Binance_DEX
Related: Bitcoin Twitter flips bearish, community responds
The intended use of wallet address "3LYJfcfHPXYJreMsASk2jkn69LWEYKzexb" was for the company to issue a number of crypto-pegged tokens on Binance Chain, starting with BTCB, a BEP-2 token pegged to BTC.
However, the wallet appears to have evolved into a cold storage wallet for the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. In a tweet by advanced blockchain tracker Whale Alert in April 2021, the wallet was again labeled as the Binance BTC reserve wallet address.
Although the wallet has been used to mint 13,001 BTC onto the Binance Smart Chain, the owner has never sold a single satoshi. Since June 17, 2019, it has accumulated a whopping 116,601.13647202 BTC.
At the time of writing, the wallet is valued at roughly $4,982,770,577, or just shy of $5 billion. Talk about diamond hands.