What are the whales doing behind the 120 BTC anonymous transfer?

A recent on-chain transfer has caught attention. According to the latest reports, 120.06 BTC (worth approximately $10,686,300) was transferred out from an anonymous address at 23:44 tonight, routed through an intermediary address before reaching another anonymous address. The covert design of this transfer has sparked market interest.

Transfer Feature Analysis

What does the three-layer transfer design imply?

The most notable aspect of this transfer is its “relay” characteristic. Moving funds from an anonymous address, through an intermediary address, and finally into another anonymous address, this multi-step transfer path generally suggests several possibilities:

• Privacy Protection: Breaking direct linkages between transactions via relay addresses, increasing tracking difficulty
• Risk Concealment: Dispersing fund paths to avoid direct association by on-chain analysis tools
• Temporal Displacement: Transfers at different times may serve different purposes

Based on the latest data, BTC is currently valued at approximately $90,506.68. This 120 BTC transfer involves around $10,686,300 in funds. Such a volume is enough to attract the attention of the market and on-chain analysis platforms.

Data Benchmark

Review of Similar Events

Recently, there have been several similar covert transfers on-chain. According to related reports, on January 8, a hacker address (starting with 0x93A0), responsible for hacking the Upbit exchange in 2019 and stealing $36 million, transferred 1,400 ETH to Tornado Cash. In that case, the hacker chose to transfer during a sideways market to move funds when regulatory attention was distracted.

Compared to that, this BTC transfer exhibits different characteristics:

• Amount: 120 BTC, while significant, is not massive relative to daily BTC trading volume
• Transfer Design: Uses relay mode, more cautious than direct coin washing
• Timing: Occurred during an active market period (night), rather than deliberately choosing a quiet time

Market Impact Assessment

From current on-chain data, this transfer has not yet entered deposit addresses of mainstream exchanges. This indicates:

• Short-term: No immediate selling pressure threat
• Medium-term: Continuous monitoring for subsequent deposit actions is necessary
• Key Signal: If within the next 24 hours, signs of deposits to Binance/OKX or similar platforms appear, more caution is warranted

Market observations show that the $10,686,300 scale has limited impact on current BTC liquidity. According to reports, BTC’s 24-hour trading volume reaches $2.311 billion. Even if this entire transfer were sold off, it would only account for about 0.46% of the daily volume.

Summary

This anonymous transfer of 120 BTC reflects the normal state of on-chain fund flows—large amounts of capital often use multi-step routes for privacy and risk reasons. In terms of actual market impact, there are no signs indicating this will exert direct pressure. The key factor remains whether subsequent deposit actions occur on exchanges. For short-term traders, this is a signal worth monitoring; for medium- to long-term holders, such events are common noise in a bull market.