On November 11, amid the confusion over troubled crypto companies like FTX and Blockfi, 3,500 ‘dormant bitcoins’ moved from a wallet created on October 7, 2011 for the first time in over 11 years.
$60 million worth of 11-year-old Bitcoins are moving in the middle of the crypto market rout
A large number of so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ moved on Friday morning (ET) after being inactive for more than 11 years. The 3,500 BTC worth over $60 million originated from seven different BTC addresses created on October 7, 2011. It’s the first major streak of decade-old dormant bitcoins to wake up in months.
The 3,500 bitcoins from 2011 were captured by Btcparser.com, and the owner of the seven different addresses did not use any of the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) or bitcoinsv (BSV) tokens associated with bitcoins.
The first 500 bitcoins from the batch of 3,500 originated from the address “1roet” and it was confirmed at block height 762,676. The BTC address “1ueNd” also saw a 500 BTC transfer which was confirmed at block height 762,676. 500 bitcoin from “14x5C” was confirmed at block height 762,679, as were “1Es8m”, “1Hfpr” and “1JziG”.
Not too long after that, the owner moved another 500 bitcoin from “17gTy”, which was confirmed at block height 762,684. Each address from the 3,500 BTC holding was created 4,053 days ago on October 7, 2011. BTC traded for just over $4 per unit that day and ended the month at $3.27 per unit on October 31, 2011. When the addresses were first created, the 3,500 BTC holding was only worth $14,000.
We have no idea why the owner of 3500 BTC spent the coins 11 years later at BTC’s lowest value in two years. But just because bitcoins were spent doesn’t mean the coins were sold. In fact, all the coins moved from pay-to-pubkey-hash (P2PKH) to pay-to-script-hash (P2SH), and bitcoins remain in single addresses.
In addition to the 3,500 bitcoins moved on November 11, approximately 50 BTC from a wallet created on May 21, 2010 was moved for the first time in well over a decade. It is the first block grant for 2010 used since August 2022. The owner of 50 BTC from 2010 also did not use any of the corresponding BCH and BSV associated with the coins.
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$60 million, 2011, 2011 stash, 3500 Bitcoin, 3500 BTC, 500 BTC per shipment, Bitcoin, Bitcoin (BTC), inactive bitcoins, October 7, 2011, Old addresses, P2PKH, P2SH, dormant bitcoins, dormant bitcoins move, whale, whale movement, whale movements
What do you think about the so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ from 2011 that woke up on Friday? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the news editor at Bitcoin.com News and a financial technology journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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