Bitcoin Whale Transfers 10,603 BTC After Years of Inactivity: Lookonchain

Highlights:

• Dormant Bitcoin whale moved 10,603 BTC worth $1.26B to unknown addresses Tuesday night.
• Transfers raise market concerns as Bitcoin trades near $119K after recent rally.
• Dormant whales and SpaceX transfers spark speculation of major shifts in Bitcoin strategy.

Three separate wallet addresses, believed to belong to the same long-dormant Bitcoin whale, collectively transferred 10,603 BTC, valued at approximately $1.26 billion, after years of inactivity. According to data from Arkham Intelligence, shared by on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain, three separate wallets received Bitcoin on December 13, 2020, at a time when BTC was trading close to $18,000. Each address held between 3,000 and 4,000 BTC. Two of them stayed inactive until Tuesday, while the third had only moved 7 BTC in two small transactions three years ago.

3 wallets (likely belonging to the same whale) just transferred 10,606 $BTC($1.26M) out after being dormant for 3-5 years.

All 3 wallets received $BTC on Dec 13, 2020, when the price of $BTC was $18,807.https://t.co/cSrBKmCTK8https://t.co/0770dlRgtlhttps://t.co/mKTH0Vl0od pic.twitter.com/YBGrixtstc

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 23, 2025

Whale Bitcoin Moves Spark Concern in Market

On Tuesday night, the three wallets moved all of their Bitcoin to new, unidentified addresses. So far, the destination wallets have remained inactive, with no signs of selling or movement to exchanges. Though the whale’s identity is still unclear, Arkham data reveals that all three wallets have interacted with the same address: 1CMbV…mMUZL. This shared link suggests the wallets may belong to a single person or entity, according to analysts.

The timing of these large transfers has raised concerns in the market. Bitcoin has been in a strong rally for the past few weeks, briefly crossing above $123,000 earlier this month at 12:35 a.m. As of Wednesday, the cryptocurrency was trading at $118,835, reflecting a 1% increase in the last 24 hours.

Despite ongoing volatility, many analysts remain optimistic about Bitcoin’s long-term trajectory. Several experts have forecasted that Bitcoin could reach $200,000 in 2025. Among them, Standard Chartered’s Head of Digital Asset Research, Geoff Kendrick, believes institutional adoption could drive Bitcoin to that level by year-end. SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci has also predicted Bitcoin reaching $200,000, citing macroeconomic changes and growing investor confidence. Additionally, independent analyst “apsk32” expects Bitcoin to hit $200,000 between November and December, based on historical cycle trends.

Watch this before you tell me the four-year cycle is dead.

Expecting $200,000+ Bitcoin in Q4.
Gold suggests we could go significantly higher. pic.twitter.com/DB9gm3NNdy

— apsk32 (@apsk32) April 24, 2025

Whale Moves Trigger Market Buzz

At the start of this month, a dormant Bitcoin whale from the Satoshi era transferred more than 80,000 BTC, valued at around $9.5 billion, after being inactive since April 2011. The coins were later moved to Galaxy Digital, which Lookonchain believes could indicate plans to liquidate the assets via the firm’s over-the-counter (OTC) desk. 

The Bitcoin OG who previously transferred 80,009 $BTC($9.68B) out after 14+ years of dormancy is moving $BTC again.

So far, he has transferred 20,009 $BTC($2.42B) from two of his wallets to a new wallet "bc1qmu".https://t.co/xHzc4TstQqhttps://t.co/5FjcAQxb89 pic.twitter.com/NgthaiG2Gl

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) July 14, 2025

Adding to the growing list of high-profile Bitcoin movements, Elon Musk’s SpaceX made headlines by shifting a large amount of BTC on-chain for the first time in three years. On July 22, Crypto2Community reported that the company transferred 1,308 BTC, worth around $152 million, to an unknown wallet. Before executing this major transfer, the wallet sent a small fee of 0.000248 BTC (around $29) to Coinbase Prime, possibly as a test.

These kinds of moves get a lot of attention in crypto, especially with old coins. There’s no selling seen yet, but reactivating dormant wallets often makes people think something big might happen. It could mean changes in market plans or long-term strategies.