Investment and trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) has been identified as the mysterious owner of a substantial bitcoin (BTC) wallet, holding a staggering $3 billion in BTC.
This revelation positions the company as the third-largest bitcoin holder, according to wallet data provided by Arkham Intelligence.
Both Binance and Bitfinex, leading crypto exchanges, eclipse Robinhood’s BTC holdings with single wallet reserves of $6.4 billion and $4.3 billion respectively.
However, the intrigue surrounding the Robinhood-owned wallet has been unparalleled. For months, the crypto community has been buzzing with speculations and concerns about the identity of the owner of this enormous BTC reserve, especially given the sheer size of the holdings.
Interestingly, Robinhood’s monumental bitcoin position comes to light amidst rather modest crypto trading volumes on its platform, prompting deeper insights into the platform’s overall bitcoin exposure.
Further details illustrate that a whopping 118,300 bitcoins were transferred to the debated wallet from several smaller wallets over a concise three-month timeframe.
While this move had the market ripe with speculations – with many wondering if the holdings could belong to the financial titan BlackRock, especially given their Bitcoin ETF filing earlier this year – another theory proposed crypto exchange Gemini might be consolidating its users’ assets.
This unknown address has accumulated over $3 Billion worth of #Bitcoin in the last 3 months.
The prime suspect?
The first major transaction of 3400 BTC occurred on May 16th 2023. Almost exactly 1 month later on June 15th 2023, BlackRock filed for it's spot #Bitcoin ETF. pic.twitter.com/TdFuUkELuH
— DivXMaN (@crypto_div) August 21, 2023
However, Arkham representatives, in a message to CoinDesk, have dispelled these speculations by confirming that the tokens are indeed in the custody of crypto trading entity Jump Trading.
The wallet’s genesis on the Bitcoin blockchain was traced back to transactions starting March 8, with substantial bitcoin transfers persisting until July 14, as per data collated from BitInfoCharts.
Despite the whirlwind of market speculation and the subsequent revelation, Robinhood has maintained a conspicuous silence, choosing not to comment publicly on these significant holdings.