As per the on-chain data, the unknown wallet has accumulated a total of 1,953 WBTC from the crypto exchange Binance at an average price of $58,853.
An unknown wallet has once again started scooping up a large amount of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) from crypto exchange Binance amid the current controversy surrounding Justin Sun.
Earlier this month on August 9, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) custodian BitGo announced its plans to transfer control of WBTC to a joint venture comprising itself, Justin Sun’s Tron ecosystem, and Hong Kong-based investment manager BiT Global. Sun’s involvement led to a major uproar in the crypto market with traders raising doubts regarding the WBTC custody.
In a post on Monday, August 19, blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported that an unknown address has snapped up more than 374 Wrapped Bitcoins in the last 24 hours. Over the last week, the same unknown wallet has accumulated a total of 1,953 WBTC from the crypto exchange Binance at an average price of $58,853.
A whale accumulated 347 $WBTC($16M) again 7 hours ago!
Over the past week, this whale has accumulated a total of 1,953 $WBTC($118M) from #Binance at an average price of $58,853.https://t.co/XlRBgyL4Tt pic.twitter.com/g1KRtkK5eY
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 20, 2024
During the same time, the Justin Sun-linked addresses have transferred a total of 2,590 BTC worth $156.4 billion to the crypto exchange Binance.
Justin Sun WBTC Controversy and Further Developments
Soon after BitGo announced its plans to transfer control of WBTC custody to a joint venture, several market players raised concerns about Justin Sun’s involvement. On August 10, crypto risk management firm Block Analitica (BA) proposed that MakerDAO’s governance forum request the protocol to close all WBTC-related debts while preventing borrowing against WBTc collateral.
Later on August 16, MakerDAO also approved and executed the proposal while prohibiting the borrowing on WBTC on the Sparklend platform. On the other hand, lending platform Aave is working on a proposal to borrow and lend WBTC, while asking for the supply of an alternative wrapped Bitcoin token, Threshold Network’s TBTC.
As we know, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is one of the most highly-used tokens in the decentralized Finance (DeFi) market. However, following BitGo’s move, market players have started looking for other alternatives.
On the other hand, crypto exchange Coinbase has also teased a WBTC competitor cbBTC, amid soaring DeFi activity on its Layer-2 network Base. Although Coinbase has to unveil further details regarding this, the development could also bode well for the growth of the Bitcoin DeFi market moving ahead.
On the other hand, the Bitcoin price has once again reclaimed $61,000 with over 4.5% gains in the last 24 hours. It will be interesting to see if the bulls can continue this omentum ahead as the market awaits Jerome Powell’s speech at the FOMC meeting this week.
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