Bitcoin (BTC) whale wallets move $61M in Bitcoin after a decade of dormancy

Moreover a decade ago, when Bitcoin was worth $134 per unit, the two wallets purchased a total of 1,000 Bitcoin. Two mystery Bitcoin (BTC) wallets holding a total of 1,000 Bitcoin worth $61 million at current rates have unexpectedly awoken after a 10-year sabbatical, transferring practically every single Satoshi.

On May 12 at 7:10 pm UTC, wallet address “16vRq…qjzEa” transferred 500 Bitcoin at block 843,131, while address “1DUJuH…NgfC5” transmitted the remaining 500 Bitcoin two blocks later, according to Blockchain.com’s Bitcoin block explorer.

The wallets each received 500 Bitcoins on September 12 and 13, 2013, when the price of Bitcoin was $134. The entire sum transferred is currently worth 456 times more than their buying price, or $61.2 million, at current pricing.

Since the transfers, one of the receiving addresses from “16vRq…qjzEa” has already moved the 500 Bitcoin to many recipients, while the receiver from “1DUJuH…NgfC5” is still holding the 500 Bitcoin.

The proximity of the inbound and outward transfers prompted blockchain analytics startup Lookonchain to combine the two transactions; observers believe the same person or entity owned the two wallets. Before the transfers, BitInfoCharts ranked the two addresses as the equal 4,353rd largest Bitcoin whales.

Less than a week ago, a Satoshi Nakamoto-era Bitcoin wallet sent 687 Bitcoin, valued at $43.9 million, to two different addresses. Approximately 1.8 million BTC addresses have been inactive for over a decade, but at least one of the early Bitcoin wallets is used every month, according to a recent study by Chainalysis and Fortune. According to Fortune, these wallets contain over $121 billion in Bitcoin, excluding Nakamoto’s wallet. Even though it is impossible to determine how much has been destroyed, the 1.8 million addresses represent 8.5% of the 21 million Bitcoins that have ever existed. People frequently think that dormant wallets are waking up to sell Bitcoin at the right time, while others believe it is to transfer assets to a different address, possibly under a more secure noncustodial wallet service provider.

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