The Bitcoin Whale Carrying $178 Million in BTC Wakes Up, But It’s Not All Bad News
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The Bitcoin Whale Carrying $178 Million in BTC Wakes Up, But It’s Not All Bad News
With the market consolidating after a massive run that pushed Bitcoin’s price above $30,000, a long-dormant BTC has awakened. This wallet has been idle for almost a decade with BTC being bought at very cheap prices. And now this whale has re-entered the market with a huge stash of BTC to boot.
Sleeping Bitcoin Whale Worth $178 Million Becomes Active
According to a report from on-chain data aggregator Lookonchain, a dormant Bitcoin address began trading after nearly 10 years of inactivity. The interesting thing about this wallet is the amount of BTC that it kept in the balance.
At the time when the wallet was last traded, which was on December 19, 2013, it had a total of 6,071.5 BTC. Now, back in 2013, one BTC was selling for around $663, data shows, which is when this whale had acquired his coins.
A whale with 6,071.5 $BTC($178M) that has been dormant for 9.3 years transferred 2,071.5 $BTC($60.7 million) out today.
And 2,071.5 $BTC was eventually transferred to the address starting with “bc1q”.
The whale got 6,071.5 $BTC on December 19, 2013, when the price was $663. pic.twitter.com/CBpoIy2mEk
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) 20 April 2023
The owner of this wallet continues to make no move even through the many bull markets that BTC has seen. However, it finally made its first transaction in nearly a decade on April 20, 2023, transferring 2,071.5 BTC worth $60.7 million at the time of the transaction.
Now, while this would normally be bearish for BTC, it doesn’t look like this whale is looking to sell. The transaction was not made to a centralized exchange, which would normally mean an intention to sell. Rather, it was sent to another unknown wallet where the BTC now sits.
Causes of long dormancy
This is not the first time that a dormant wallet carrying a large amount of BTC will return to being active, and it is unlikely to be the last. There are several reasons why wallets go dormant, ranging from loss of private keys to death. In cases like this, it is likely that the owner of the wallet could finally regain access to the wallet after a number of years.
But as one user points out under Lookonchain’s post, another reason could be that the owner of the wallet was in jail. In the end, it’s just speculation as to why the whale went so long without selling any tokens.
BTC returns to $28,000 territory | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
As for Bitcoin, the digital asset is holding up somewhat nicely considering the circumstances. Bulls appear to have developed support for BTC just above $28,800 where the coin is currently trading. However, the euphoria that gripped the market last week has begun to wane and the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index has returned to neutral, pointing to a reluctance to enter the market at current prices.
