A long-dormant Bitcoin “OG” has been rotating billions of dollars’ worth of BTC into ETH over the past two weeks, executing the bulk of the trades on Hyperliquid and withdrawing large tranches of ETH to self-custody—before staking a significant portion on the Beacon Chain.
MLM added that 3,000 BTC remained in the actively used source address—likely earmarked for further rotation—while two older wallets still held a combined 46,816 BTC (≈$5.07 billion). Cumulatively across the past 11 days, MLM tallied 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 as baseline pricing for comparability.
The execution venue has become part of the story. Hyperliquid’s public explorer (HypurrScan) shows heavy activity at the Hyperliquid account cited by MLM, corresponding with phased BTC deposits and batched ETH withdrawals. “MoonOverlord”—a trader—downplayed the mystery around the venue choice: “idk why it’s bizarre? it’s a trade, he picked the best venue.” MLM replied that the oddity is not the platform but that “the identity of this person is unknown, and he decided to swap such a large amount of BTC to ETH, which is unusual for a ‘og’ bitcoin whale.”
The trader’s provenance is still speculative. MLM argues the entity is “presumably Asian,” noting that the original BTC was accumulated seven to eight years ago via Asia-linked platforms and miners—“HTX, OKX, ViaBTC (a mining pool), Bixin (a miner), and Binance.” But MLM cautioned readers not to over-interpret intent: “Of course, don’t take this prediction as financial advice, since it’s all speculation for now and we don’t know the intentions of this whale.”
While commentators are debating motives, the mechanics are clear: staged BTC funding to a single trading venue, piecemeal ETH fills to minimize slippage, rapid withdrawals to self-custody, and swift conversion of a large portion to staked ETH. The cadence of deposits and withdrawals—some clustered over weekends—also lines up with timing observations in MLM’s logs and Arkham’s updates.
What remains uncertain is how much further the rotation will go. MLM’s running ledger suggested that at least several thousand BTC were still poised to move: “Additionally, there’s another combined 46.816 BTC ($5.07B) across these wallets: 17MWd [and] 12Xqeq. Of this, another 14.495 BTC ($1.57B) might get rotated based on previous activity, though it’s unclear what will happen with the remaining 32.321 BTC ($3.5B). At this point, it looks like he is rotating everything lol.”
At press time, BTC traded at $109,621.
