Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and payment system that often relies on the security and P2P nature of its approach to stand out among other currencies and payment systems. It is especially useful for handling bigger transactions, something the fiat system is not renowned for and creates further problems.
One of the biggest problems in the current fiat system is that it is not a measure of actual transfer but rather a continuous process of transfer of credit instead. The physical cash remains within the central/reserve bank and thus, the banks have to rely on this digital debt transfer among themselves. Bitcoin, on the other hand transfers the native cryptocurrency i.e. Bitcoin through its blockchain technology through an energy-intensive process. This is an actual transfer that completely gives the control of the transaction to the end user and cannot be reversed under any circumstances.
This approach increases end user confidence and thus, can be useful for handling bigger transactions. This can be shown in the history of Bitcoin transfers.
Here are the Top 5 biggest Bitcoin transactions ever made:
Well the 6th biggest worth a blick also. Ironically, the smallest BTC transaction in this list had the highest USD equivalent amount i.e around a massive $1 billion amount. According to blockchain.com and other sources, the source of this transaction were Huobi wallets belonging to the one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world based in China. The transaction took place in September 2019.
The fifth largest Bitcoin transaction occurred back in November 2018. It was worth around $490 million back when Bitcoin was hitting yearly lows after an all time high in January 2018 earlier. If Bitcoin is worth $10,000 at one time, the transaction would be worth around $1.1 billion.
Next up is a huge transaction that occurred back in January 2019. This was worth around $475 million at that time. The interesting thing about this transaction is that the new address holds as much as 66,300 BTC a year or so after so this could be a long-term whale HODL more than anything else. This transaction would be worth a lot more, probably double the amount at that time according to the latest price index.
This massive transaction took place a while ago, back when Bitcoin was still in the sub $1000 region. The total worth of that transaction in USD was $118 million at that time. However, this transaction would be worth more than $1 billion if the exchange rate is above $5600 for one Bitcoin.
This massive transaction occurred around one year after the first Bitcoin halving back in November 2012. The value of this transaction at that time was around $149 million. It would be worth a lot more, more than $1 billion if the exchange rate is above $5200.
The single largest Bitcoin transaction ever recorded was back November 16, 2011. This massive transaction saw a mammoth 500,000 BTC being transferred from one address to another. At that time, Bitcoin was below $5 and thus, the total value of the transaction came out to be just $1.32 million. Today, it would be worth more than $2.5 billion if the exchange rate is around $5000.
Just to put it into perspective, 500,000 BTC is half of the total number of Bitcoins held by Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallets which makes it pretty astonishing that at one time in the cryptocurrency world, we saw transactions that were close to the seemingly magical figure possessed by the creator(s) of the cryptocurrency itself.
While it is difficult to imagine that such a big transaction might occur today, it is not impossible as several big cryptocurrency exchanges are known to have big sums at their disposal and they constantly move around their cryptocurrency for management purposes. However, the size of the transactions has generally reduced over time in BTC terms while at the same time, the USD equivalent amount has been climbing. The biggest transaction in this list had the smallest Dollar amount at the transaction time while the smallest transaction had the largest Dollar amount.
Since transactions are getting smaller in BTC terms for varying reasons, it is going to be extremely competitive to get into this list! One can follow whale monitors online to get an idea about the big Bitcoin and other altcoin transfers happening round the clock. As this list shows, as the Bitcoin price index increases, the transactions in BTC terms become smaller while the USD equivalent amount increases.
Image source: pixabay.com
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