Was Tether the Unknown Bitcoin Whale Behind Monday’s $2.27 Billion Transfer?

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The massive $2.27 billion bitcoin transfer that occurred on Monday has led to the emergence of fanciful theories that Tether might be creating a private dark pool for future USDT issuance.

The Facts: Bitcoin Whale Moves $2.27 Billion in Six Hours

Monday (July 29, 2019) turned out to be an eventful day in the bitcoin scene. “Fiach_Dubh” a pseudonymous writer for Coinmonks – a technology-focused publication – has woven an intricate plot that ties together several of the major happenings from Monday.

In a Medium post published on Tuesday (July 30, 2019), the Coinmonks writer alleged that yesterday’s massive BTC movement and the launch of Tether on the Liquid Network are part of an elaborate scheme.

Tweeting on Monday, Whale Alert, a Twitter bot that tracks large crypto transactions, revealed five massive bitcoin movements. Each transaction was worth more than $448 million in bitcoin making a total of $2.27 billion.

As reported by Bitcoinist, Tether also went live on the Liquid Network leading to the emergence of L-USDT. This announcement happened a few minutes after the third BTC transfer.

The Conjecture: Tether and Blockstream’s Liquid Network

The Coinmonks article theorized that Tether is the ‘Unknown Owner 26’ involved in the $2.27 billion transfer. For the writer, the timing of these seemingly separate occurrences goes beyond simple coincidence.

The argument put forward suggests that Tether plans to expand its stablecoin by taking a significant portion of the USDT market capitalization into the Liquid Network.

Probable Conclusion: An Attempt at Obscuring USDT Flow?

By so doing, the writer argues that Tether can now obscure the issuance of USDT. Such a conclusion creates the possibility for private stablecoin transfers, creating a “dark pool” for exchanges.

Bitcoinist reached out to both Tether and Blockstream about these theories. In an email to Bitcoinst, Blockstream CEO Samson Mow said:

The theory doesn’t really hold any water because the issuance of Liquid Tether can be tracked in any Liquid Block Explorer. For example https://blockstream.info/liquid/asset/ce091c998b83c78bb71a632313ba3760f1763d9cfcffae02258ffa9865a37bd2

So, at the time I’m writing this, you can see 61 500 Liquid USDt has been issued.

Mow also debunked the idea of a dark exchange pool saying Liquid’s privacy features only ensure the security of entities sending large funds. Thus, while blockchain monitoring platforms can’t view such transactions, the aim is to provide privacy, rather than anything untoward.

Bitcoinist is yet to hear back from Tether as at press time.

What do you think about the argument put forward that Tether wants to use the Liquid Network to obscure the issuance of USDT? Let us know in the comments below.

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