Thu, September 12

Justin Sun Shifts $156 Million in BTC After BitGo’s WBTC Custody Update

Justin Sun Shifts $156 Million in BTC After BitGo’s WBTC Custody Update Bitcoin News
  • Justin Sun moved 2,590 Bitcoin ($156 million) after BitGo changed its WBTC custody arrangements.
  • BitGo is shifting WBTC custody to a new joint venture with BiT Global, linked to Justin Sun.

Recent significant Bitcoin (BTC) and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) transactions have drawn attention to an address suspected to be connected to Justin Sun’s team. The activity has sparked widespread speculation within the cryptocurrency community, especially following BitGo’s recent decision to transition WBTC custody to a joint venture involving Sun’s TRON ecosystem.

Wrapped Bitcoin has recently drawn significant attention from the crypto community, particularly concerning Justin Sun’s potential influence. Blockchain intelligence platforms, including Arkham and Spot On Chain, have tagged an address associated with Justin Sun transferred 2,590 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $156.4 million, to Binance shortly after BitGo announced its custody changes. Following this, a newly created address began withdrawing WBTC from Binance. Since August 15, Binance has withdrawn approximately 1,953 WBTC, valued at about $118 million.

BitGo’s WBTC Custody Overhaul

These movements come on the heels of BitGo’s August 9 announcement, which outlined plans to shift WBTC custody to a multi-jurisdictional structure, sparking concerns about the security and governance of the asset. Also, speculation has surged about WBTC’s future after BitGo announced plans to transfer control of the cryptocurrency to a joint venture with BiT Global.

With the upgrade, WBTC custody will be diversified to include Hong Kong and Singapore, moving away from the current U.S.-based arrangement.

Amid these changes, questions surround Justin Sun’s role in the custody reshuffle. Following that, Justin Sun clarified that his involvement with WBTC is purely strategic, stating that he does not control the private keys to the WBTC reserves and cannot move any BTC reserves.

However, these large transactions have sparked concern, especially following BitGo’s announcement of changes to WBTC’s custody model, which now includes multiple parties and jurisdictions. 

This hasn’t worsened the market; in fact, Bitcoin’s price has climbed over 5% in the last 24 hours, reaching the $61,000 zone after a week of consolidation. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $61,041 with a market cap of $1.20 trillion. Additionally, Bitcoin’s daily trading volume surged by more than 48% to $28.9 billion.

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