Galaxy Digital sold over 80,000 bitcoins for a Satoshi-era investor

Galaxy Digital has facilitated the sale of over 80,000 bitcoin, an amount worth more than $9 billion, for a Satoshi-era investor in what’s now being called one of the biggest transactions in crypto history.

This was confirmed by Galaxy in a statement released today. The anonymous client behind the sale is one of the earliest holders of bitcoin, with the transaction forming part of what the firm described as a long-term estate planning strategy.

The sale happened on Thursday, when Mike Novogratz’s firm began sending billions in BTC to exchanges. The total amount moved was around $4 billion, with wallet activity traced by Arkham Analytics.

The act of moving coins to exchanges doesn’t automatically mean a liquidation, but in this case, Galaxy later withdrew about $1.15 billion in stablecoins, meaning that a significant portion of the assets had in fact already been sold.

Sale pulls early coins into circulation and shakes up price movement

Galaxy didn’t identify the seller but described the move as a carefully planned financial step by the investor, who had sat on this stash since the early 2010s or earlier.

Bitcoin’s price, which had dropped to under $115,000 overnight, bounced back slightly on Friday to $117,200, though it still remained 1.2% down over the previous 24 hours. That rebound came despite large volumes moving into active markets.

The crypto had been trading within a narrow range for the past four days. While the sale didn’t crash the market, it did raise new concerns about liquidity and sell-side pressure.

As trading volume picked up, debates over valuation resurfaced. Bitcoin’s worth, like always, hinged on what the next buyer is willing to pay. 

Citigroup report breaks down new valuation models and trends

On the same day the sale became public, Citigroup analysts Alex Saunders and Nathaniel Rupert released a detailed report on how to assess bitcoin’s price. “The price of bitcoin ultimately depends on how many people want to hold it,” the report said. The updated framework introduced by Citi combined previous approaches and incorporated recent macro changes.

The analysis built on earlier work from 2022, which had included electricity cost as a price floor, a stock-to-flow ratio for gauging scarcity, adoption levels to evaluate the network, and macroeconomic trends, specifically, how the coin correlates with equities and the dollar. The latest update didn’t just rehash those points. It introduced a more urgent tone, claiming that crypto is now too significant to be ignored.

“Back in 2022, the question was whether crypto had any impact on the real economy. Today, the question is how much exposure investors already have—whether they realize it or not,” Saunders said. The report said that crypto assets have grown to the point where their market caps rival major public companies, and they’re now embedded in top financial indices like the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Russell.

One figure stood out. Crypto-related holdings now account for 7.6% by weight in Bloomberg’s U.S. Convertible Liquid Bond Index. Much of that exposure ties back to MicroStrategy, which has long been a major institutional holder of bitcoin. That number alone is why, as Citi put it, “even crypto-agnostic clients must now track these markets.”

The purpose of the new model was to help clients understand their crypto exposure without guessing or relying on rough price estimates. And while adoption remains one of the core inputs, Citi warned that increased involvement from traditional finance, especially if regulatory clarity continues, will blur the lines between crypto and the traditional market even more.

“Traditional institutions are already in it, whether they like it or not,” Rupert added. “The regulatory signals are clearer, and the stakes are higher.”

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