Who Owns the Mr. 100 Cryptowallet and What Does Upbit Have to Do With it? 

Over the past two months, I've been keeping a close eye on the unusual activity of one Bitcoin wallet nicknamed "Mr. 100." This wallet regularly received deposits of exactly 100 BTC every few days, which led to certain thoughts.

Upon deeper analysis, I noticed natural connections between this address and the well-known wallets of the large South Korean exchange Upbit. Having studied the transactions, I came to the conclusion that the so-called “Mr. 100” is highly likely to be a cold wallet of this exchange.

The wallet in question, identified by the address "1Ay8v" with a balance of 52,996.88 BTC, has attracted the attention of other crypto enthusiasts. Debate about its origins has reignited on social media, sparking speculation about the identity of its owner, including rumors of a connection to a Qatari billionaire.

The key observations that led me to make this assumption were the following. First, deposits of 100 BTC to this address regularly come from other Bitcoin wallets owned by Upbit. Secondly, part of the outflow from this wallet goes to the hot wallets of the exchange, servicing client withdrawals.

“Such high activity and transaction volumes suggest that Upbit is using this address as a temporary storage of customer funds for its own purposes, possibly speculative”, Vladimir Okhotnikov.

This practice is very risky, especially if the exchange is actively opening positions in a bull market.

Contrary to popular belief, Arkham Intelligence suggests that "Mr. 100  may not be an individual or government entity, but rather a cold wallet address owned by Upbit."

Based on its analysis of blockchain data, Arkham highlights the wallet's frequent communications with other Upbit exchange wallets, which is typical behavior for the exchange's cold wallet.

Moreover, it is interesting that Mr. 100 could be a state. But the rumors circulating around pay-per-public-key-hash (P2PKH) addresses are likely far from the truth and completely misleading.

Arkham recently released a clarification stating that “the wallet is likely to belong to Upbit. Centralized cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, located in South Korea, is the leading national trading platform in terms of cryptocurrency trading volume in the region.”

Because it’s hard to believe that the exchange receives 100 bitcoins in commissions every few days. Well, the funds that are withdrawn hardly belong to the clients. Rather, these amounts cover a range of transactions, nearly half of which may be routine asset diversification efforts.