Bitcoin Whale Spends Less Than $400 to Move $468 Million Holding

Twitter account @whale_alert recently noted that an unknown Bitcoin whale moved over $468 million of its crypto fortune while paying less than $400 as the transaction fee.

The news thrills all

@whale_alert tweeted,

“A cryptocurrency whale has moved a groin-thumping Bitcoin fortune worth $468.5 million — and they paid just a few hundred bucks for the pleasure. 49,756 #BTC (468,491,827 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallet.”

The single transaction that the whale made was included in block #587601. The Bitcoin network charged a total of $374.98 to make the transfer. The identity of the whale is unknown, and we cannot be sure if it transferred money to its own wallet or a different person’s wallet. While the whale paid significantly higher fees compared to other whales who made transactions recently, $400 is nothing compared to the total amount of the transaction made.

Bitcoin’s structure allows variable fee

Bitcoin is not designed like a traditional payments infrastructure. In fact, the blockchain allows the user to choose their transaction fee. Fees often act as bids that miners either accept or reject. If they accept, the user’s transaction is added to the next mined block. When users pay a higher fee, the chances of a transaction’s confirmation are higher. This means that transactions with higher fees will be accepted into the blockchain sooner than others. The users can check the fees on “mempool” and other similar places.

Banks charge unsurprisingly high fees for making a huge transfer like this. Not to forget the documentation that would be required to do so. A good alternative to banks is TransferWise, which provides better rates than big banks while making transactions. However, this system too has its limits since no transactions of more than a million dollars can be made.

To transfer $468 million, users will have to transact 468 times, which is a time consuming and tiring process. However, if they do choose to go this route, they will spend $3,600 to send just $1 million from the US to Europe. A big part of this fee is contributed by fluctuating forex rates. To send $468 million using the fiat system, a user will have to pay $1,684,800. Compared with the Bitcoin network’s $400, this amount is a fortune.

The same whale went on to make three new transfers, each amounting to roughly $450 million in Bitcoin. Each of the transfer’s recipients is tagged as “Unknown Owner 26,” according to @whale_alert. The whale paid around $440 in fees on the Bitcoin network. Note that Unknown Owner 26 has also received a series of smaller transfers recently.