Sleeping Bitcoin wallet stirs after 11 years, moving over $30M

July 24, 2023 Alex Rustok

A dormant Bitcoin (BTC) wallet holding over 1,037 Bitcoin — worth $31 million at current prices — has suddenly awoken after an 11-year slumber, transferring out its entire stash. 

The 1037 BTC was transferred amid a Bitcoin price of $29,956 and took effect at block height 799701 — approximately 10:51 am UTC on July 22, according to BitInfoCharts.

The long-dormant address obtained the 1,037 BTC on April 11, 2012, when BTC’s price was only $4.92, on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain stated on July 22. This means at the time, the stash was only worth around $5,108.

Data from blockchain aggregator Blockchair shows that wallet address “bc1qt180…” — which appears to be a fresh wallet — was the recipient of the $31 million. 

The balance of the original Bitcoin wallet peaked at $71.6 million when BTC reached its all-time high price of $69,044 on November 10, according to cryptocurrency price platform CoinGecko.

The United States government has been one of the biggest BTC movers of late, having transferred out nearly 10,000 BTC — worth $299 million — out in a series of transactions on July 12 in relation to the Silk Road seizure.

It isn’t clear whether the transactions were sent to cryptocurrency exchanges or if it remains in the custody of the Justice Department.

More mysterious wallet movements

On June 11, another mysterious Bitcoin whale moved 1,400 BTC — worth $36 million at the time — to a Pay-to-Taproot (P2TR) address. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju believes the motive behind this transaction may have been to enhance privacy.

Earlier in April, another Bitcoin address transferred 2,071 BTC — worth $60 million — nearly 10 years after catching BTC at $663, according to Lookonchain.

Three months earlier, a massive $250 million transfer of 26,056 BTC was made by another Bitcoin address. At BTC’s all-time high, the wallet was worth more than $1 billion.

Related: Bitcoin’s dull price action ignites buying interest in LINK, FIL, SNX and THETA

Despite a few high-value transfers, over 55% of BTC hasn’t moved in over two years, according to a chart by on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, which was shared by cryptocurrency researcher Will Clemente:

BTC is currently priced at 30,082. While Bitcoin’s price has increased 81.8% in 2023, it is still down 56.4% from its all-time high in November 2021, according to CoinGecko.

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