Industry Execs Claim Freshly Minted ‘Virgin Bitcoins’ Fetch 20% Premium

A few blockchain surveillance companies like Cyphertrace have recently published reports on criminal activities tied to bitcoin usage and the studies mentioned the topic of “virgin bitcoins.” According to industry executives, freshly minted bitcoins with no transaction history can sell for a 10-20% premium compared to coins sold on the open market. Even though the subject of ‘clean’ and ‘tainted’ bitcoins is debatable, the following editorial is a look at why virgin bitcoins might be sought after and why institutional investors and even criminals want to acquire bitcoins with no onchain history.

Also read: There’s No Such Thing as Tainted Bitcoins

What Are ‘Virgin Bitcoins?’

Bitcoin transactions are not anonymous and the blockchain provides the world with a record of every transaction that takes place when people send or receive the digital asset. It doesn’t mean that people cannot obfuscate their transaction data by using Tor,…