Was the largest BTC sale in history linked to a 2011 exchange hack?
A historic, over-the-counter sale of more than 80,000 bitcoin (BTC) last week captured the attention of crypto social media.
The sale of the coins, which, according to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, might have originated from the 2011 MyBitcoin exchange hack, represents the largest notional sale of BTC by a single individual in history.
Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital handled the sale and said his client was selling for estate planning reasons. Novogratz didn’t comment further on X about the transaction nor on a CNBC appearance shortly after the press release.
Arkham Intelligence didn’t confirm the MyBitcoin theory, but its blockchain analysts did note that the coins originated in April–May 2011 and had only transferred into eight new wallets as of early July 2025.
The 80,000-BTC amount roughly matches the amount that pseudonymous MyBitcoin executive Tom Williams admitted to losing in 2011: about 51% of 154,406 BTC.
Wikipedia contributors also estimated MyBitcoin lost approximately 78,000 BTC.
MyBitcoin back in the news, 14 years after hack
As with any major crypto exchange hack, many questions remain about the cause of its downfall. Some skeptics even point the finger at Williams himself or other MyBitcoin insiders.
In any case, the buyer and the seller didn’t transact on the date of the press release, July 25.
Instead, they might have transacted off-blockchain by sweeping keys, transacted during on-chain movements around July 4-5, or otherwise signed legal contracts consummating the transaction without moving coins on the Bitcoin ledger.
Read more: Why is so much Mt. Gox bitcoin going to the top 1%?
Galaxy Digital’s head of research retweeted a post confirming the over-the-counter (OTC) nature of the transaction with “no blockchain crumbs.”
Instead of an on-chain transfer, Galaxy merely published its press release as an OP_RETURN in an unrelated transaction between previously known Galaxy Digital clients.
Dormant for 14 years, the coins had ballooned in value to over $9 billion.
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