Private Bitcoin transactions — using a process called CoinJoin — has tripled since 2022 as a result of huge Bitcoin accumulators accelerating their purchases of Bitcoin, according to CryptoQuant.
These Bitcoin whale addresses are primarily linked to spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, MicroStrategy and custodial wallets, according to CryptoQuant’s Ki Young Ju, who explained that whales “frequently use privacy transactions” to transfer their funds to new institutional investors in a Dec. 26 X post.
CoinJoin transactions pool inputs and outputs from several parties in a way that obfuscates who might own an unspent transaction output.
Young Ju shut down the idea that CoinJoin transactions are mostly used by hackers to launder stolen funds — highlighting that Chainalysis’ reported $2.2 billion in losses in 2024 only accounts for 0.5% of Bitcoin’s $377 billion in realized cap inflows.
While public-listed firms must disclose their holdings, Young Ju said there remains unidentified Bitcoin whales that have accumulated up to 420,000 Bitcoin — worth over $40 billion.
“Who are these whales?” Young Ju asked.
Some commenters of the post wondered if a nation-state is discreetly building a Bitcoin reserve behind closed doors, while others speculated it may have been a sanctioned country trying to mitigate sanction risks.
Russia recently passed legislation authorizing foreign trade in Bitcoin and other crypto assets.
Related: Bitcoin privacy will survive despite CoinJoin closure — zkSNACKs CEO
CoinJoin’s potential for misuse has captured the attention of law enforcement around the world, including United States authorities, who arrested the founders of privacy-focused Bitcoin non-custodial service Samourai Wallet and seized its website in April.
At the time, the US Department of Justice said Samourai’s CoinJoin feature executed $2 billion in unlawful transactions and facilitated over $100 million in money laundering from “dark web” markets, such as Silk Road and Hydra Market.
Dutch authorities also detained Alexey Pertsev, the creator of crypto mixing tool Tornado Cash in August 2022, who was found guilty of money laundering in May 2024.
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