As online rumors go, this one’s a doozie. According to multiple media outlets, a mysterious cryptocurrency investor bought a whopping 96,650 Bitcoin sometime between the 9th and 12th of February. Formerly only identified by the wallet address “3Cbq7aT1tY8kMxWLbitaG7yT6bPbKChq64,” the still-anonymous buyer has now been dubbed “Yi Mei.“
Yi Mei – whomever he or she is – bought over 45,000 Bitcoins when the market was trading at around $8,400. He (or she) then doubled down, with another 41,000 BTC purchase shortly thereafter. Since the Bitcoin was purchased, it has already appreciated in value substantially. Already, the world’s first cryptocurrency is trading over $10,000. While most crypto investors wouldn’t even get out of bed for a 16% return, netting $160 million in a few days’ time is an accomplishment by anyone’s standards.
The mysterious billionaire behind this purchase is raising a lot of questions. And answers are not forthcoming. Run “Yi Mei” through Google and you’ll get a delicious-looking Taiwanese deli in California, not an Asian billionaire. But, just for fun, let’s join in on the wild speculation.
Who Is Yi Mei?
So far, nobody knows.
Some people believe the billion-dollar Bitcoin buyer is actually an exchange that needs the coins to cover trades. However, this is not very likely. The wallet address does not have the volume of deposits and withdraws typical of your average crypto exchange. And not to mention, most exchanges don’t have that kind of cash. Coinbase, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, made $1 billion in total revenue throughout all of 2017. That doesn’t leave the company with anywhere near the amount of cash flow necessary to pull off such a major purchase.
Others have claimed that Yi Mei is Chinese billionaire William Ding, CEO of NetEase. Allegedly, some close friends of Ding shared screenshots of online conversations in which he admitted to being the big buyer. For his part, Ding has vehemently denied the rumors. He insists that he has never owned Bitcoin, and that he would not sink his money into the cryptocurrency out of concern for the future of Bitcoin’s network.
So, although it could be Ding, it could also be any number of the other 1,500 billionaires across the world who has $1 billion to spend. Maybe Yi Mei is Warren Buffet, another billionaire who takes a bearish position on Bitcoin just like Ding. Or maybe it’s Jeff Bezos – he spent $42 million on a clock inside a hollowed-out mountain, why not $1 billion on Bitcoin? Heck, maybe Yi Mei is Satoshi Nakamoto under a different alias.
How Does a $1 Billion Bitcoin Purchase Impact the Market?
Whomever he or she is, Yi Mei now owns just under 1% of all Bitcoin in existence. This is probably not enough to crash the market if Yi Mei turns out to be a greedy speculator looking to make a buck and then dump their holdings. But it is certainly enough to raise some concerns about price manipulation. And it’s more than enough to catch the attention of the Feds, who are starting to develop a real knack for investigating cryptocurrency-related crimes and scammers.
The most likely answer is that Yi Mei is a broker. The wallet associated with the buy has made limited large deposits and withdraws since September 2017, indicating that it’s held by an organization that buys and sells for large clients. Bitcoin found its price floor at around $5,000 in the January slump. A wealthy brokerage firm may have seen the recent price dip as an opportunity to buy, knowing that it would be able to unload them over the next several months, likely at a hefty profit. This would prove positive for the market overall, since it shows a bullish trend among those in the know. However, given that we know nothing about Yi Mei other than their wallet address, there’s no telling how this massive buy will impact an already famously speculative market.