In brief
- Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have transferred around $130 million in Bitcoin to the exchange’s hot wallets over the past week, said Arkham.
- The blockchain analytics firm speculated that the transfers were “presumably to sell,” while others suggested that they could be intended for purposes such as exchange liquidity.
- The crypto exchange recently laid off a quarter of its staff and exited the European and Australian markets.
The founders of crypto exchange Gemini, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, have transferred roughly $130 million worth of Bitcoin to Gemini hot wallets over the past week, according to blockchain analytics platform Arkham.
In a tweet, Arkham said transfers made from wallets it had tagged as belonging to the pair were made over the past week, suggesting potential sell-side positioning as Bitcoin trades near local highs.
Bitcoin is currently trading at around $70,720, up 4.4% on the day according to CoinGecko data.
While Arkham claimed that the transfers were intended “presumably to sell,” neither Cameron nor Tyler Winklevoss have publicly confirmed the purpose of the moves at publication time. Wallet transfers to exchange-linked addresses are commonly treated by traders as potential distribution signals, but they do not by themselves confirm completed spot selling.
Given that the transfers were made to hot wallets at the pair’s own exchange, commenters on Arkham’s post suggested that they may have been intended to facilitate OTC transfers, for custody rebalancing or to provide exchange liquidity.
Gemini’s recent pivot
Arkham said the twins still hold about $764 million in BTC, and estimated their aggregate Bitcoin profit-and-loss at around $1.8 billion, underscoring how much early positioning remains on their books despite recent transfers.
Last September, Tyler Winklevoss predicted that Bitcoin could “easily” trade at 10x its then-current value of $116,000.
More recently, in February, Gemini saw its stock price plunge by double-digits after the firm announced that three key executives were leaving, just weeks after it laid off a quarter of its staff and exited the European and Australian markets. At the time, Gemini stated that it was pivoting to focus on its prediction market plans, as well as driving efficiency gains through streamlining processes with AI.
Gemini’s stock has since rebounded from its late-February lows—after closing as low as $5.82 on February 20, it has climbed back to around $8.71 as of the latest close, according to market data from Yahoo! Finance.
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