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TL;DR
- The short and most probable answer to the question in the title is – no.
- On-chain data suggests that the transfer was internal, even though some community members believed it was whales withdrawing, while others speculated that it could be some sort of hack.
As the graph above demonstrates, the massive transfer took place on April 25 at block #893894, in which 25,177 BTC, valued at over $2.35 billion at the time, was moved from one of the exchange’s known wallets.
CryptoQuant’s analyst Maartunn explained that such a sizeable transfer is “important to track because this size can affect market perception of traders, and the liquidity on exchanges.”
X users were quick to comment below the post, with some speculating about whales removing massive portions of their BTC holdings out of the world’s largest centralized exchange to cold wallets. There could be some merit to this claim as whales have been accumulating in large portions lately.
However, others brought some fear to the market, claiming that Binance might have become a victim of a hack, similar and even bigger than the one against Bybit from earlier this year.
CryptoQuant’s analysis quickly refuted both theses, indicating that the move was most probably an internal transfer.
“While the size of the transaction raised questions, all evidence suggests this was an internal movement, not a user withdrawal.”
Maartunn noted that the confirmation will be evident in Binance’s proof of reserves report, which was scheduled to be released on May 1. However, the paper has not been published as of press time.
Nevertheless, there seems to be little to no actual reason to worry, at least given the currently available information. BTC’s price was also largely unaffected by the transfer, as it’s actually up by a few grand from April 25.
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