A wallet tied to Hut 8 sent nearly 2,000 BTC toward exchanges and trading desks over seven days. Onchain data cannot confirm a sale, and the company has not commented. The moves follow a stated plan to shift its bitcoin exposure to American Bitcoin.
A Hut 8-linked wallet sent 1,966 BTC worth $161 million to exchanges, OTC desks and other destinations in seven days. The wallet emptied itself by early Friday, according to Bitcoin News.
Coins hop through one intermediary address
Arkham labelled the source addresses as Hut 8's Coinbase Prime custody wallets. The coins moved to a single intermediary address and then fanned out. On Oct. 15, two transfers of 263.79 BTC and 654.21 BTC followed, worth about $75 million combined at the time.
Later that day, at 22:45 UTC, another 674.21 BTC and 190.79 BTC arrived, and the intermediary started splitting them into tranches of 20 to 200 BTC. Then, at 03:11 UTC on Oct. 16, two final 65 BTC transfers left, and the address held less than 0.005 BTC.
Onchain data cannot prove a sale, because coins sent to an exchange or OTC desk could be collateral, a hedge, or an internal transfer to a new custodian. Hut 8 has not issued a statement explaining the moves. Lookonchain said Hut 8 held 10,278 BTC before the transfers. One onchain analyst estimates the treasury has moved 15% of its stack in two days.
A stated shift and a costly AI pivot
When Hut 8 reported second-quarter results in August, CEO Asher Genoot said: "Going forward, the bitcoin exposure will primarily be at American Bitcoin." That quarter also brought a $177.1 million net loss, driven by $138.6 million in unrealized digital asset losses.
Hut 8 also recently signed a $9.8 billion lease for an artificial intelligence data center campus in Texas. Bitcoin News noted that building gigawatt-scale AI capacity eats cash, and a bitcoin pile is the most liquid asset on the balance sheet.
HUT shares drop 10.5%
HUT shares fell 10.5% on Oct. 14, from $83.61 to $74.87, on volume of almost 12.9 million shares. The drop came during a broad selloff in chip and AI stocks. The stock then bounced to $76.09 on Oct. 15 as the transfers sped up.
What it means for bitcoin
Bitcoin is currently trading around $82,000. It briefly dipped below $80,000 on Thursday. Bitcoin News said $161 million is not enough to break the market on its own.
However, a treasury company turning seller lands differently from a whale taking profit. If Hut 8 keeps sending coins out at this pace, bitcoin's price has to absorb a steady corporate supplier, not just a one-off trade.
Source: Bitcoin News
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
