Elon Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX, moved massive 1,083 BTC on Friday, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. This marks the 8th Bitcoin transfer by the firm, sparking speculations within the crypto community as BTC price fell to $91K again ahead of today’s crypto options expiry and the key PCE inflation data release.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Transfers 1,083 Bitcoin
SpaceX moved almost $100 million in Bitcoin to a new wallet rather than to the wallets in the previous transfers, on-chain analyst Lookonchain reported on December 5. The on-chain expert believes the latest transfer to Coinbase Prime is likely for custody purposes.
Arkham transaction data revealed over 1083 BTC moved from the wallet linked to SpaceX. Unspent 283 BTC worth $31.33 moved to ‘bc1qrzg’ and spent $162.48 in BTC moved to Coinbase Prime. Also, the remaining unspent 800 BTC worth $73.73 million moved to ‘bc1qyh’ wallet.
SpaceX primary wallet still sits on 5,012 BTC, valued at $461.7 million at the current market price. Transfers look like a pattern as SpaceX rotates part of its Bitcoin holdings into fresh wallets every few weeks. Notably, coins moved to new addresses in the last two months remain untouched.
SpaceX Transfers Rate Rise After Crypto Market Crash
Outflows from SpaceX to other unknown wallets have increased significantly after the October 10 crypto market crash. In the last 2 months, Elon Musk’s firm made seven transactions, of which 4 transfers were to new wallets.
As CoinGape reported earlier, SpaceX moving massive Bitcoin holdings in October sparked speculation of selloffs by Elon Musk ahead of a potential market crash or strategically restructuring assets in preparation for something big.
The latest transfer comes on the day of the key US PCE inflation release ahead of the FOMC Meeting that would decide market direction in the coming weeks.
Bitcoin Price Slips to $91K
BTC price fell more than 1% after SpaceX moved Bitcoin, extending the fall by 3% from $94K. The price is currently trading at $91,135, with a 24-hour low and high of $91,035 and $93,620, respectively. Furthermore, trading volume has dropped by 18%, which indicates a lack of interest among traders due to crypto options expiry.
The derivatives market showed selling in the last few hours, as per CoinGlass data. At the time of writing, the total BTC futures open interest dropped 1.45% to $59.28 in the past 24 hours. The BTC futures OI on CME and Binance fell by more than 2.60% and 2.07%, respectively.