Amid growing rumors about the leading crypto centralized exchange, investors are withdrawing vast amounts of Bitcoin (BTC) from Binance. The founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), called the rumors an attempt to create ‘fear, uncertainty, and doubt’ (FUD).
Notably, the Whale Alert account on X registered five withdrawals on August 23, in the same minute, summing to a total of 5,729 BTC ($150 million) for this case only.
Although the above transactions were made separately, they were all included in the same Bitcoin block (block height 804522), which made them registered at the same time.
Multiple receivers were part of these withdrawals, but one entity stands out above them all. The unknown address “1KNm4…rA72p” was responsible for the largest sum, currently holding 5,434 BTC at the time of publication.
Bitcoin outflow from Binance
Data retrieved by Finbold from CryptoQuant shows that Binance registered six consecutive days of negative Bitcoin Netflow (outflow dominance) since August 17, for a total of 14,460 BTC out of Binance’s reserves until August 22, following the price drop.
The daily netflow results are:
- August 17: (-1,754) BTC
- August 18: (-2,133) BTC
- August 19: (-2,007) BTC
- August 20: (-4,473) BTC
- August 21: (-948) BTC
- August 22: (-3,145) BTC
Netflow is calculated per ‘total BTC inflow’ (deposits) minus ‘total BTC outflow’ (withdrawals) from known addresses by the centralized exchange (CEX). Data from August 23 are still incomplete, but slightly positive, besides the 5,729 BTC withdraws reported above.
Balances on all exchanges at a 5-year low
Not only Binance is suffering with massive withdrawals from Bitcoin investors, as Glassnode identified a 5-year low for BTC balances on exchanges on the same day of the mentioned whale alerts.
There are currently less than 2.27 million BTC in CEXes’ known addresses, indicating that ‘HODLers’ are moving the leading cryptocurrency to private self-custody wallets. This kind of movement can also indicate that there are no intentions to sell these bitcoins in the short-term, or that there were recent purchases being moved to safety.
