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A long-inactive Bitcoin “OG” has recently been exchanging billions in BTC for ETH over the last two weeks, primarily executing trades on Hyperliquid and withdrawing considerable amounts of ETH to personal custody—before staking a notable segment on the Beacon Chain.
Bitcoin OG Whale Continues to Rotate into ETH
On-chain analyst “MLM” has tracked these movements in real time. In the latest 46-hour span, the address cluster associated with the trader sold 7,000 BTC (≈$759 million at MLM’s reference rates) and acquired 171,791.84 ETH (≈$773 million).
MLM noted that 3,000 BTC remained in the actively utilized source address—likely reserved for further rotation—while two older wallets held a total of 46,816 BTC (≈$5.07 billion). Over the past 11 days, MLM reported 34,110 BTC sold (≈$3.7 billion) and 813,298.84 ETH purchased (≈$3.66 billion), using $108,400 per BTC and $4,500 per ETH for consistency.
The venue for execution has become part of the narrative. Hyperliquid’s public explorer (HypurrScan) shows significant activity at the Hyperliquid account highlighted by MLM, aligning with structured BTC deposits and aggregated ETH withdrawals. “MoonOverlord”—a trader—downplayed the peculiarity of the venue choice: “idk why it’s bizarre? it’s a trade, he picked the best venue.” MLM countered that the unusual aspect lies not in the platform but in the fact that “the identity of this individual is unknown, and his decision to convert such a large volume of BTC to ETH is uncommon for an ‘OG’ Bitcoin whale.”
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Arkham Intelligence independently identified the same entity, stating: “THIS WHALE JUST PURCHASED $430M OF ETH – AND STILL HAS $650M REMAINING TO BUY,” pinpointing specific addresses across both chains. According to Arkham, the whale “has acquired over $3 BILLION of ETH in total and staked the majority,” with flows linking a BTC source wallet starting with “169q…” and an ETH destination “0x6167…”.
These staking claims are now observable on-chain. On September 1, funding flows from 0x6167… directed to a “Beacon Depositor” account that made a series of deposit transactions totaling 165,010 ETH to Ethereum’s staking contract, with numerous deposits of 30,000 ETH and 15,010 ETH submitted within the same hour. The deposit contract view and funding trail from 0x6167… confirm that a large portion of the newly procured ETH has been funneled directly into staking.
On the Bitcoin side, the active source wallet “169q…” along with two long-dormant companion wallets “17MWd…” and “12Xqe…” anchor the cluster that MLM has been monitoring since last week. Mempool records reflect recent intra-wallet transactions and outputs from 169q… consistent with the structured deposits to Hyperliquid outlined in the thread.
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The trader’s background remains a matter of speculation. MLM suggests the entity is “presumably Asian,” noting that the original BTC was gathered 7 to 8 years ago through Asian-linked platforms and miners—“HTX, OKX, ViaBTC (a mining pool), Bixin (a miner), and Binance.” However, MLM warned readers not to overly interpret intent: “Of course, don’t take this prediction as financial advice, as this is all speculation and we don’t fully understand the whale’s intentions.”
$5 Billion Selloff Still Possible
While analysts are discussing motives, the mechanics are evident: staged BTC funding directed to a single trading venue, incremental ETH acquisitions to minimize slippage, fast withdrawals to self-custody, and quick conversion of a substantial portion to staked ETH. The timing of deposits and withdrawals—some grouped over weekends—also aligns with logs from MLM and updates from Arkham.
What remains uncertain is the extent of the rotation. MLM’s ongoing records indicate that several thousand BTC are still prepared to move: “Additionally, there’s another combined 46.816 BTC ($5.07B) across these wallets: 17MWd [and] 12Xqe. There’s a likelihood that another 14.495 BTC ($1.57B) might be rotated based on past behavior, although it’s unclear what will happen with the remaining 32.321 BTC ($3.5B). At this moment, it appears he is rotating everything lol.”
At the time of reporting, BTC was valued at $109,621.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
