$8B whale movement may signal compromised Bitcoin keys, says Coinbase executive

Conor Grogan, Director of Product Strategy at Coinbase Exchange, suggested on X that the recent $8 billion movement in dormant Bitcoin (BTC) may be due to compromised private keys. He pointed to a Bitcoin Cash (BCH) test transaction from a related wallet shortly before the BTC transfers began, possibly to quietly verify access, as BCH is less monitored by whale watchers. Grogan noted that other linked BCH wallets remained untouched, raising further suspicion. While calling the theory speculative, he said the manual transfer pattern and BCH activity suggest this was not an exchange wallet. Such a scenario, he said, would make it the largest crypto theft in history.