Arkham Intelligence Claims to Trace 98% of MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Holdings
Summary:
Blockchain analytics firm, Arkham Intelligence, claims to have tracked down 98% of MicroStrategy's on-chain Bitcoin holdings, amounting to 186,000 BTC. The majority seems to be pooled with other clients' BTC at Fidelity, while part resides in segregated custody including Coinbase Prime. These findings have sparked criticism, as some regard Arkham's approach as a violation of privacy.
In a recent report, Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics platform, alleges that it has traced approximately 186,000 Bitcoin (BTC), which equates to 98% of the total BTC holdings of the business intelligence corporation, MicroStrategy. MicroStrategy's total accumulation of BTC allegedly reaches to approximately 190,000, and the vast majority of it is now accessible in Arkham's database. Arkham's findings indicate that an estimated 107,000 BTC from MicroStrategy's reserves are bundled with other clients' BTC in Fidelity, whereas 79,000 BTC is stored independently, including with Coinbase Prime.
With the prevailing Bitcoin price at $52,000, MicroStrategy's traced Bitcoin holdings, according to Arkham, approximate a staggering $9.7 billion at the time of the report. Data from Fidelity Custody reveal over 174,000 BTC in total wallets, with transactions stemming from platforms such as Coinbase, Foundry USA, and Gemini. The location of roughly 4,000 BTC that MicroStrategy reportedly controls remains uncertain.
On February 7, Michael Saylor, Executive Chair of MicroStrategy, announced the corporation's procurement of an additional 850 BTC in January, augmenting their aggregate Bitcoin reserves to 190,000 BTC. Starting its Bitcoin accumulation journey in August 2020, MicroStrategy affirmed a substantial $250 million investment in crypto as part of its strategy to make BTC its primary reserve asset.
In an effort to "deanonymize the blockchain", Arkham Intelligence previously put up rewards for any information that could assist in the discovery of digital wallets belonging to highly influential individuals, including Terra co-founder Do Kwon. Following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's green light for spot BTC exchange-traded products in January, Arkham managed to locate the on-chain whereabouts of ETFs from BlackRock, Bitwise, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton.
The publicly announced wallet addresses and their associated owners, as divulged by Arkham's methods, have been met with criticism from numerous Crypto users. Many have described the analytics firm's approach as a "snitch-to-earn" service, especially in light of some wallet owners facing attacks after their physical addresses and other sensitive information were uncovered by digital detectives.
Published At
2/16/2024 10:49:29 PM
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