Two mysterious Bitcoin wallets holding a total of 1,000 #Bitcoin worth $61 million at current prices have suddenly woken up after a 10-year hiatus and are sending nearly all assets to different wallets. According to the blockchain's Bitcoin block, wallet address 16vRq…qjzEa transferred 500 Bitcoins at block 843.131 on May 12, while the other 500 Bitcoins were sent two blocks later with address 1DUJuH…NgfC5.
Remarkable Awakening for Bitcoin
According to CoinGecko data, on September 12 and September 13, 2013, the price of Bitcoin was $134 and 500 Bitcoins were sent to each wallet. At current prices, the total amount transferred is now worth 456 times more than the purchase price of $61.2 million. Since the transfers, one of the receiving addresses from address 16vRq…qjzEa has sent 500 Bitcoins to multiple wallets.
The closeness of inward and outward transfers led blockchain data analysis platform Lookonchain to match the two transactions; viewers believe that the two wallets belong to the same person or organization. Before the transfers, the two addresses were the equal 4,353rd largest Bitcoin whales, according to BitInfoCharts.
Bitcoin Whales and the Trade Process
Less than a week ago, the Satoshi Nakamoto-era Bitcoin wallet transferred 687 Bitcoins worth $43.9 million to two separate addresses. While at least one of these early Bitcoin wallets tends to wake up every month, according to a recent analysis by Chainalytics and Fortune, there are approximately 1.8 million Bitcoin addresses that have remained dormant for over a decade.
Fortune said those wallets, excluding Nakamoto's wallet, contained approximately $121 billion worth of Bitcoin. While it's impossible to know how much of this has been lost, the 1.8 million addresses account for 8.5% of the total 21 million Bitcoins that will exist.
While people often suggest that dormant wallets may wake up at an opportune time to sell Bitcoin, others suggest that this may be to transfer funds to a different address, perhaps under a more secure non-custodial wallet service provider. According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin is currently priced at $61,450 and has increased by 130% in the last 12 months.
