According to onchain data cited by Galaxy Research, 107 BTC was sent to a long-established Bitcoin burn address, with analysts suggesting an exchange transfer error as one of several possible explanations.
An unidentified wallet sent 107 BTC, worth about $8.5 million, to the long-established Bitcoin burn address 1111111111111111111114oLvT2, making the funds permanently unrecoverable. According to onchain data shared by Galaxy Research, the transfer was carried out on Monday through five separate Bitcoin addresses and raised the total amount ever sent to that burn address to 807 BTC, valued at nearly $60 million based on Arkham data. Conor Grogan, head of product business operations at Coinbase, said the leading theory is that an exchange mistakenly sent the funds during a cold storage transfer, though Galaxy Research also cited possibilities including tax loss harvesting, destruction tied to illegal activity, or an AI-related error. The coins had been dormant for more than 12 years and were originally acquired when Bitcoin traded below $600, representing a reported 12,700% gain before being destroyed.