Third-Biggest Wallet For Bitcoin Has Changed Hands, But It’s Probably The Same Owner

• by Artem
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• December 5, 2022
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• Bitcoin News

The third-largest bitcoin wallet, known as “1P5ZED,” was the subject of considerable speculation as the price of bitcoin reached new heights in November 2021. Social media was rife with rumors regarding the wallet, and several individuals mistakenly believed that Microstrategy’s BTC hoard was the source of those rumors.

Blockchain observers then discovered that 1P5ZED relocated all of its bitcoins in mid-July after the claims were refuted. According to blockchain records, the 1P5ZED address decreased to 0.01257 BTC at the end of June 2022. A source having “access to blockchain analytics tools (Chainalysis and Ciphertrace) as part of their job function” stated the following in 2021:

“There is an almost 100% chance that both addresses in your article, both 1P5ZED and 1FzWLk, belong to Gemini.”

Additionally, the 1P5ZED wallet displayed exchange spending behaviors, including cluster spending. The block explorer oxt.me also draws attention to two annotations that presume the “1P5ZED” bitcoin address was connected to the exchange Bittrex. According to statistics, the wallet is still most likely connected to the crypto exchange Gemini, despite the loss of more than 132,000 BTC in the middle of July and at the end of June. Onchain data, clustering, and heuristics demonstrate that 1P5ZED just changed hands (addresses), but the owner stays the same, even if analysts cannot pinpoint the precise owner of 1P5ZED.

With a balance of more than 140,000 BTC, 1LQoW, the third-largest bitcoin wallet today, is linked to 1P5ZED and 1FzWLk. In addition to often transacting with 1P5ZED, 1FzWLk also traded with 1LQoW. The money was sent to other addresses, including 1LQoW, from the now-empty 1FzWLk wallet. Data also reveals that 1LQoW, the third-richest bitcoin wallet at present, and well-known Gemini exchange wallets were frequently mentioned in connection with 1FzWLk’s transactions.

As usual, 1LQoW was referred to as a new “mystery whale” or “mega player” in the market in social media posts and cryptocurrency publications. In July and August 2022, OXT researcher Ergo BTC tweeted about the address. “1LQoW was first seen a few weeks ago, receiving its first [transaction] in a batch withdrawal from Coinbase,” Ergo tweeted. “It’s 2 outgoing [transactions] are back to 1FzWL, which implies that this address is at least linked and possibly co-owned by 1P5Zs/1FzWL/key rotation? In other words not ‘selling.’”

Ergo also tweeted on August 2, 2022, about the bitcoin wallet 1LQoW, when a lot of speculative reporting began to emerge following the 1P5ZED claims earlier. Er. Onchain data further demonstrates that 1LQoW is not a brand-new “mega whale” or “market player” who unexpectedly dethroned 1P5ZED as the third-largest bitcoin wallet.