This secret trader known only by a number just made nearly $300 million in a month
By Bloomberg | Updated: Jul 11, 2017, 12.42 PM
Hidden identities are a popular feature of the twilight world of virtual money.
By Tom Metcalf
An unknown cryptocurrency trader turned $55 million of paper wealth into $283 million in just over a month.
The only clue about this person or persons, beyond a virtual wallet with the identification code 0x00A651D43B6e209F5Ada45A35F92EFC0De3A5184, surfaced on a June 11 Instagram posting, in Bahasa, in which he or she (or they) (or somebody posing as them) boasted about the 413 per cent profit accumulated earlier this year from ether, the digital money of the Ethereum blockchain.
“I get many private messages asking how much ether I have,” the post read, alongside photos that purported to be the hardware powering a mining operation but looked lifted from another website. “One of the cool things about Ethereum is that all wallets around the world are transparent and open for everyone to see. And this is my wallet’s savings.”
Hidden identities are a popular feature of the twilight world of virtual money. Now that the total value of cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin and ether, soared June 6 to more than $100 billion, approaching the market value of McDonald’s Corp., concerned regulators say it might be time to link wallet IDs with actual humans.