[REP] - Coinbase OTC Address?

[kingschmidty]

What type of Algorand key?

Account (Wallet Address)

Key

GGYZ6WF74FZXPXPURAXRQ7D52BSJLRTXPPNQGV2RUSAVAT3BAQHNTA33J4

Details

I believe that GGYZ6WF74FZXPXPURAXRQ7D52BSJLRTXPPNQGV2RUSAVAT3BAQHNTA33J4 is an address associated with a Coinbase OTC desk.

As an introductory note, it should recognized that this address does not have some typical characteristics of an exchange. Normally an exchange will interact with other address only as outflows or as inflows. With GGYZ, there are also addresses which have both sent and received from GGYZ, https://flow.algo.surf/address/GGYZ6WF74FZXPXPURAXRQ7D52BSJLRTXPPNQGV2RUSAVAT3BAQHNTA33J4. These addresses which have the both inflows and outflows, tend to have equal amount in both directions.

Firstly, I believe that it is a Coinbase address. One of the addresses which feeds into GGYZ is F25AZYBYD4VOXXSPYUYNXY2P35VCUX6S322W44L2QZLVPWRLXLJRSN3KXY. You can see it close to GGYZ minutes after receiving funds here, https://allo.info/account/F25AZYBYD4VOXXSPYUYNXY2P35VCUX6S322W44L2QZLVPWRLXLJRSN3KXY/txns. This F25A address is listed by the charity, Give Well, as a deposit address for them, https://www.givewell.org/about/donate/cryptocurrency/thank-you. Give Well mentions that their donation address is managed by Coinbase, https://www.givewell.org/about/donate/cryptocurrency. Since the F25A address closes to GGYZ, it should be inferred that both addresses are managed by Coinbase.

Secondly, this address received its initial funds from Coinbase, and its first large fundings from Coinbase. The first three funding addresses, E6I2, H4E5, and B5YO, all received their funds for transfer from Coinbase, https://allo.info/account/GGYZ6WF74FZXPXPURAXRQ7D52BSJLRTXPPNQGV2RUSAVAT3BAQHNTA33J4/txns?sorting=ROUND_ASC. Those initial funding accounts can be seen here: https://allo.info/account/E6I2ULMLP6BPLC3K2VSALMNSRORWQRUJ5FBLCV7SME45EIY3IXV3AOTTD4/txns, https://allo.info/account/H4E5YCSEIWAWQHYEASWJKFMAZJE3QT2QVSOJ6GIQ3L6VEZUGGNVFJK7ZPM/txns and https://allo.info/account/B5YOB5EBSXLYPQNPTZOINJCHPX4CMO62BPKM4BDF32PDV3SDLWN2UHGFXA/txns. The first large inflow came from 6IJU, which also received its funding from Coinbase, https://allo.info/account/6IJUVHFWU5AATVCQMADAPMVUUXELAMQF2ABFPUA4XFBUJ5WN3CLG57GS3E/txns?sorting=ROUND_ASC.

Thirdly, this address appears to receive large inflows from Algorand Technologies. The deposit address, PI2L receives 100M Algo from Technologies from the addresses labeled Algorand Technologies: 126, 127 and 129, and deposits into GGYZ, https://flow.algo.surf/address/PI2L7NX2RFXL3FVV3THQASIOEDERFQLX5OKRQ7F3OSIQ36GVKXDSC74TTU. Additionally, the deposit address, QTUU transferred 30M Algo in funds from Algorand Technologies 240, 245, 250. and 256 to GGYZ, https://flow.algo.surf/address/QTUUGFPXDFHEHSJ733AYB7U7USLA7TX2BKU5LO73J3IZ6OAAINOXE3PXXM. Thus, it should be accepted that the GGYZ has accepted over 130M funds from Algorand Technologies. This would make sense if these were sells from Algorand Tech. And it would make sense if Algorand Technologies were making their sells at an OTC desk.

Finally, there are some transaction notes which help indicate that this is an OTC desk. First is a txn with the label "SkyBridge 1/6," https://allo.info/tx/2KGUMVEQSOOERLTXSNOI6KDCKEOOT2YOZ4S27GB4DZ7ZWWMJEBBQ. Skybridge is of course, Anthony Scaramucci's investment fund, which launched a $100M Algorand Fund, https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/09/16/scaramuccis-skybridge-capital-files-for-crypto-etf-raises-100m-for-algorand-fund. The recipient could be a deposit address associated with Skybridge, and that would make sense for a Institutional account to have an address associated with the OTC desk. Another set of interesting txn notes associated with GGYZ are a set of advertisements for Osprey to institutional addresses. You can see some txns here: https://allo.info/tx/OMZG3TT7DOB5PLSB7TP37NXTOR2U55OONQ4KBG2LMS4MQ4W5V2IQ, https://allo.info/tx/R6UKYXGE7ORPU2TGPBSSZ23S4ESENAHBVSL6LMHNLZTGE2JLCKLQ, and https://allo.info/tx/UGJ4PLNEVIGCASLFPTX3P2DLX26B4GWSG2LOPILNB3NWW4STND3Q. The Osprey txn ad is looking for US OTC Market Trading. Their txn was "Osprey Funds has an audited, IRA-eligible ALGO fund seeking US OTC market trading. In-kind txns available. Email [email protected] for more info." So it makes sense that many of their recipient's would interact with GGYZ, if in fact it was a US OTC trading desk. A couple of addresses which received that Osprey add and interacted with GGYZ are listed here: https://allo.info/account/L56OEGWOIJWFIFGX2BRPNENQQVB26YLEQBOBLPM5GHN4QOXPL3S6TZDJYY/txns, https://allo.info/account/72V4CTAD43FNF4DZWW4RNFVNHAVWEDMQIHIYPSZTGDRQRWNNGMSBSTBAHE/txns, https://allo.info/account/3R224OWVBZ2NUOMDFGQQFJVTNIA6BK55MV676JG5PYVZPUIV2JH7XL4GXU/txns. I believe these Osprey txns were given to addresses which are custodied with Coinbase since their Osprey trusts are all custodied with Coinbase, https://ospreyfunds.io/products/odot/, https://ospreyfunds.io/products/osol/, https://ospreyfunds.io/products/obtc/. With the Osprey and Skybridge notes, it appears that many of the addresses which interact with GGYZ are institutional accounts.

These findings are consistent with the Coinbase Custody and OTC desk. Coinbase custody is directly integrated with their OTC desk, https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-custody-agency-otc-instant-liquidity-on-offline-funds. Thus, the deposit and withdrawal addresses are likely coinbase custody addresses. We know that Give Well custodies with Coinbase. And it is likely that the addresses which received the Osprey txns are also coinbase custodied addresses. This would explain why addresses are both inflow and outflow addresses to GGYZ, because the neither deposits or withdrawals are to self-custodied addresses.

Overall, it seems reasonable to assign GGYZ to Coinbase OTC desk. The inflows/outflows look like sells, buys and bids/asks/cancels. The GiveWell charity shared their address and identified Coinbase as their custody provider. The Algorand Technologies addresses send large amounts of Algos to GGYZ, which is best explained by it being and OTC desk. And txn notes to deposit addresses, seem to identify the deposit addresses with Institutional accounts. This makes sense for an OTC desk. All this combined makes a pretty strong case for it being and OTC address and that it is specifically a Coinbase OTC address.

[kirse]

Pushed your recent REPs to Prod tonight, thanks! Anything worth following on the Coinbase OTC desk wallet? Seems like a cool find..

[kingschmidty]

yeah, I have been working on it for a long time, because a lot of things didn't make sense. I think there were two interesting things.

1. There has been around 70M Algo recently come out of that address, equally spread across 10 or so wallets. Those wallets can be seen here:
   OTNELXSRJDYLFU7AFKVPMCAAESZQPUTZKLGQG2HRTAKAMDDBBITTNREHFA
   3M46H5SVTSP6LGOELW6MNKMRNKZNZGUDFFZLTDPD3FKCSGCZLF2SODBMEM
   FRUUEWYQ743KQX2Y7GW3KAB45JFEU24FQGH6IZ4PQMUE4FLDYCK37HOSTU
   7EGKGL7JY7VQ3W7PLHOMCCJ4CESXN5Y57CGCUKCA6RKSM2WEC43WULIREA
   M527PWJO7XTBCLGVSLS65N3PKIV2SJHMYCGHQM2HZXNPESJFGSNUT7NUGY
   IQC25B5K5ULLCDKCEPS4MWDESOCCCHLOVJ7Q6XCEQYLMQCL3XCCVJDEJRI
   46SD5DJEJJH54ABC5XEMH5QWBU23SJRNZZ27JVALIP4HPM7AWBCJFR4GJU
   TFPKGHB53HY6NEOKXA2LZ5QPJTOD7DICAN3Q3VIQE2MZHWYEIWFJJ54JQA
   MQVP32VTMWKNCANDF35XIUSFQEBAYAHUZYPNYVDBRWHWCJ6MY2AGNCQTOU
   CLE4WPO4HM5MTXIRJNNMKPIX7KFFFEVDIVBNASQMPNYSK3WAZ7AAHSDEO4
   CWKIQK76OML7W2A7S3OT5JK6F7EH4RH7TLHIFRK2ESUWMBTIXSHTEGGIQM

I don't know what the purpose of these wallets are, whether this is a large OTC buy, or a market maker splitting up funds, or merely someone has moved to Coinbase custody. They are all recently funded, so it could be related to ALGO's recent run up. Also, the addresses are still adding, so I have been keeping an eye on them. It would take a fair amount more research to tell, and if it is just a coinbase custody user, I wouldn't want to step on their privacy.

2. There is also an interesting address which seem to be tied to many of the exchanges but is not an exchange itself. This address, 77SIAF7OSYYIB5ZMVUASG2YEOG3LO3KWJAGATACMNN5PEMOL3FU46HYTSA, transferred many funds to GGYZ, https://flow.algo.surf/address/MJF6HRUMBTTUBJJ3DKXLXSBYIRCLDSZSKXEMTN4VPC7UWPKMNNOZUFWY3Q. And it received many funds from GGYZ, https://flow.algo.surf/address/DSGJ2EBP2MIE3JY7CNTTAJOJTJIISYITHLJ2P2QKVFUKRNLQOQOKZDTZLY. You can see that it has received inflows from many of the exchanges, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Kucoin, FTX and more. However, it does not have small inflow amounts from many sources, the way an exchange would. Nor are its interactions, exclusively inflows or outflows. There are many addresses which 77SIA is both a source of inflows and outflows. This too is unlike an exchange. It could be that 77SIA is on-chain storage for a market-maker, for their funds which are not currently storing on exchanges. This would explain why they interact with so many exchange addresses, and has a different activity structure.