Dormant Bitcoin Address Awakens After Nearly 12 Years, Transfers BTC Worth $60M

Last updated: July 15, 2024

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Dormant Bitcoin Address Awakens After Nearly 12 Years, Transfers BTC Worth $60M

Highlights:

After remaining dormant for nearly 12 years, a Bitcoin address moved 1,000 BTC to unknown wallets.
Bitcoin whales have shown significant activity with massive transfers and accumulations.
Smaller traders react by selling during recent market volatility.

According to on-chain data, a dormant Bitcoin wallet established on Sept. 25, 2012, moved 1,000 Bitcoins to two new wallets for the very first time. The first wallet received 998.737 Bitcoins, while the second wallet received 1.263 Bitcoins. The 1,000 BTC, now valued at over $60 million, remained untouched for 11 years and nine months. The activation of this wallet coincided precisely with Bitcoin reaching the $60,000 range for the first time in nearly two weeks.

💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 💤 A dormant address containing 1,000 #BTC (59,989,823 USD) has just been activated after 11.8 years (worth 11,908 USD in 2012)!https://t.co/JOJTymSWal

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 14, 2024

At the time of acquisition, BTC was trading at $12.10 per coin, so the initial value of the holdings was just $12,100. After holding the coins for nearly twelve years, the wallet’s value has increased by roughly 500,000%. The reason for the transfer and the identity of the wallet’s owner remains unknown.

Even though most users spend between seven to nine satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), the user who conducted this transaction spent 19,107 sat/vB. Instead of paying $0.68 or 8 sat/vB for the transfer, the owner of the 1,000 BTC paid 19.41 times more, totaling $11.45. This transaction was relatively more private than typical dormant Bitcoin transfers, scoring 75 out of 100 on Blockchair’s privacy tool. It received a “moderate” score due to multiple instances of the same address in the inputs.

Recent Bitcoin Whale Movements

Ten days ago, a previously inactive Bitcoin wallet address holding 119 BTC (worth $6.8 million) became active and transferred funds for the first time in more than 12 years. The reason for the transfer remains undisclosed, as does the identity of the wallet’s owner.

On May 12, Bitcoin wallet addresses that had been dormant for over 10 years moved 1,000 BTC, worth more than $62.8 million. Both addresses received 500 BTC each on September 12, 2013, valued at just $62,000 at that time, when Bitcoin was trading at around $124, as noted by on-chain analysts at Lookonchain.

2 wallets that have been dormant for 10.7 years transferred all 1,000 $BTC($60.9M) out in the past 20 mins.

Wallet"16vRqA" received 500 $BTC($62K at that time) on Sept 13, 2013, when the price was $124.

Wallet"1DUJuH" received 500 $BTC($62K at that time) on Sept 12, 2013, when… pic.twitter.com/l5ivjrcRt5

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 12, 2024

A Bitcoin wallet that had remained inactive for over a decade transferred its entire holdings of 687.33 BTC, valued at over $44 million, on May 6. The wallet originally received these bitcoins on January 12, 2014, as reported by the on-chain monitoring platform Lookonchain. At that time, the price of one BTC was $917.

In March, the fifth wealthiest address on the BTC blockchain, dormant since 2019, moved $6 billion. Additionally, another entity consolidated $140 million in Bitcoins mined in 2010 into a single wallet during the same month.

Whales Accumulate at Fastest Rate Since April Last Year

During the recent market downturn earlier this month, Bitcoin whales capitalized by accumulating a substantial 71,000 BTC, marking the fastest accumulation rate since April 2023.

Bitcoin whales added 71K BTC to their wallets this week, as they capitalized on the recent price decrease pic.twitter.com/fBeEGUP6P8

— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) July 13, 2024

According to CryptoQuant data, a significant portion of this buying spree took place when Bitcoin briefly dropped to $54,200 on July 5. Minkyu Woo, a CryptoQuant analyst, suggests that this significant accumulation could indicate that the worst of the sell-off may have passed. On the other hand, smaller traders have been selling off their holdings during the recent price dip. This trend underscores the contrasting investment strategies between large and small participants in the market.

These whales have bought over 47,000 #BTC at an average price of $57K.

This suggests that the bottoming out of #BTC may be nearly complete.#BTC #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/MpNqAETAqZ

— 우민규 (Woominkyu) (@Woo_Minkyu) July 10, 2024

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Author

Syed Ali Haider

Ali Haider is a contributing crypto writer at Crypto2Community. He is a crypto and blockchain journalist with over six years of experience and has long advocated for digital freedom and cybersecurity. Haider has been featured in several high-profile crypto and finance outlets, including Coincult, AltcoinBeacon, BTCRead, and more.

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