The epic roller coaster of Bitcoin put the entire Wall Street into unprecedented embarrassment.
Those financial giants who claim to be "market masters" are sitting in their respective offices at the moment, staring at the bent K-line on the screen, their faces ashen.
In Goldman Sachs's Trading Room, several partners were sitting around.
They originally planned to gradually ship goods above 18000 US Dollar, completing a beautiful harvest.
However, the huge sell-off of 350,000 Bitcoin pushed the price below 18,000 for the first time. Their shipment plan was cut off, and they lost at least hundreds of millions of expected profits of US Dollar.
JPMorgan Chase's quantitative analysis team worked overtime overnight, trying to find the disruptor.
CEO Jamie Dimon slammed the table at an internal meeting. "I don't care if he is Satoshi Nakamoto or whoever he is, I want to know who broke the rules!"
Renaissance Technologies's Hedge Fund managers were even more furious.
Their proud Quantitative Model was completely disrupted by this sudden wave of market crashes.
A fund manager complained in the group, "We have calculated all possible variables, but we did not calculate that someone is holding 350,000 Bitcoin - this is not a fucking variable, this is a tsunami!"
Ken Griffin, the founder of Citel, was asked by reporters at a luncheon what he thought of the collapse of Bitcoin. He said with a smile:
"There are always surprises in the market, but this time... it's really a bit of a surprise."
--The second half of the sentence he swallowed was: The person who smashed the plate made Wall Street a joke.
Wall Street was tricked, this news is so exciting.
Soon, media reports were overwhelming.
Everyone wants to know who this hero is.
The world has been suffering Wall Street for a long time.
New York, a certain Private Club.
A dozen men in suits and ties sat around Long Table, and the atmosphere was so solemn that it seemed like it was dripping with water.
Anyone here can name a name that is well-known in the financial world:
Steven Mnuchin, former United States Treasury Secretary, now Hedge Fund Senior Counsel.
Michael Novogratz, founder of Galaxy Digital, was once called the "King of Cryptocurrency" by Forbes.
Brian Armstrong, base CEO.
Jeffrey Sprecher, founder of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of New York Stock Exchange Chairman.
There are also several large-scale Hedge Fund partners who wish to remain anonymous.
This group of people gathered together for only one purpose, to find the beast who smashed the plate.
"Who can tell me," Novogratz spoke first, with anger in his voice.
"Who is that bastard who smashed the market above 17,000?"
There was silence in the room.
"On-chain data shows clearly,"
An analyst wearing gold-rimmed glasses turned on the projection,
"Between 17,000 and 18,000, 350,000 Bitcoin were sold intensively.
These coins come from eight different accounts, but the behavior pattern is highly consistent - they are all sold in small batches, multiple times, and in steps, with extremely professional techniques."
He paused. "This is not something that retail investors can do. This is an institution, and it is an institution with extremely rich experience."
"Have you found out who it is?" Mnuchin asked.
The analyst shook his head:
"Bitcoin is decentralized, with no central server and no IP mandatory recording.
The registration information for these accounts - if they have registration information - is simply not available to us.
We tried to track Fund Flow, but the other party was very professional:
Each transaction uses a new address, there is no reuse, and there is no obvious aggregation behavior."
He smiled bitterly:
"Theoretically, as long as they stop transferring these coins back to real-name exchanges, we will never know who it is."
Armstrong frowned:
"But they have to cash it out, right? Billions of US Dollar have to go into the banking system, right?"
Analyst says:
"Yes, this is the only clue. But we don't have law enforcement authority now and can't get the exchange's KYC data. And--"
He pulled up another chart:
"Following the sell-off in these accounts, funds were dispersed to thousands of new addresses.
If the other party is smart enough, they will slowly launder these coins, or convert them into legal tender through over-the-counter transactions.
By the time we find out, people will already be safe."
There was silence in the room again.
Novogratz stood up and walked to the window:
"So, we have a piece of meat snatched from our mouths by an invisible opponent. We can't even find out who he is."
He turned around:
"Do you know what the media calls us now? 'Wall Street who was teased', 'financial tycoon overturned by a giant whale'. We have become a joke!"
Armstrong took a deep breath:
"You can't say that. The Bitcoin market is inherently global, and anyone can affect the price as long as they hold enough coins.
We just met a bigger player than we thought."
"Who do you think it is?" Mnuchin asked.
Armstrong thought for a moment:
"Early miners? Satoshi Nakamoto himself? A certain sovereign fund? It's all possible."
Someone whispered:
"Could it be North Korea? They are mining together."
"It may also be that the Russia oligarchs are transferring assets."
"I think it might be that mysterious eastern country."
"Eastern?"
The analyst pulled out a few screenshots:
"We did a troubleshooting Model.
After excluding all known whale wallet addresses, large exchange cold wallets, and known institutional holding addresses, the remaining eight accounts have one common characteristic--"
He pointed at the screen:
"Their first transactions were all after December 2016.
Moreover, from December 2016 to June 2017, after a reduction in positions, these accounts could only enter and exit, and the cumulative purchases exceeded 500,000 coins.
The average buying price is around 850 US Dollar."
There was a gasp in the room.
850 US Dollar.
To 18000 US Dollar, it has doubled 21 times.
"So this is a person?" someone asked.
"Probably a team. But pointing in the same direction--"
The analyst paused:
"Great Eastern Country."
Late at night, inside an international Blockchain analysis company.
This company is the world's top on-chain data analysis institution, specializing in providing tracking services to governments and financial institutions of various countries.
At this moment, more than a dozen engineers are working overtime, trying to find out any clues about the mysterious seller.
"Boss, we have lost another line." A young engineer took off his headphones, his face full of exhaustion.
"How did you catch him?"
"The other party is too cunning. Every transaction uses a new address, and every once in a while, it is transferred to other currencies through the cross-chain bridge, and then transferred back again.
We chased it for more than 20 hops and finally found a currency mixing agreement - and then the clue was lost."
The leading middle-aged man rubbed his temples:
"Coin mixing agreement?"
"Yes, privacy tools like Wasabi Wallet.
They used Join and mixed the funds with those of thousands of other users, making it impossible to tell who is who."
The middle-aged man was silent for a few seconds:
"Keep chasing. The superiors have said that no matter how much it costs, we must find this person."
"But boss, if the other party uses privacy tools, we will never be able to catch him."
"Then chase him until he doesn't use it. One day, he will transfer the coins to the exchange.
As long as you enter the exchange, the KYC data is ours."
"How long will it take to wait?"
The middle-aged man looked out the window at the dark night:
"I don't know. But those Wall Street people can't swallow this breath.
We must give them an explanation."