Mysterious Bitcoin Whale Silent for Over 9 Years Suddenly Awakens and Realizes Over $9.6 Million in BTC Holdings ⋆ ZyCrypto
A Satoshi-era bitcoin address that hadn’t traded in over a decade suddenly came back to life this week, resulting in a remarkable return.
The development was first highlighted on Wednesday by blockchain security firm Perkshield. According to the firm, the address, which has been inactive for 11 years, surprisingly transferred 412 BTC worth around $9.6 million to another address.
“Dormant $BTC address 1MMXRA (which has been inactive for 11 years) has transferred ~412 BTC (~$9.6M) out (credit to BlockBeatsAsia)”, wrote Perkshield.
Data from Bitinfocharts shows that the address received the bitcoin in batches on various dates in 2012 before becoming inactive. In particular, until October 1, 2012, when it was last active, 412 BTC was worth just $8, meaning that the value of that stash had grown by 120,000,000% at the time of the transfer.
The awakening of dormant BTC addresses is not unusual for the Bitcoin community. In November 2022, a wallet believed to be owned by the failed crypto exchange BTC-e came to life, transferring a total of 10,000 bitcoins worth around $165 million to various entities. In the same month, seven dormant bitcoin wallets, each holding 500 BTC for about 11 years, woke up and moved 3,500 BTC to new addresses.
In October, an entity with 32,000 BTC that bought the coins at an average price of $3,900 moved its coins for the first time since 2018. Earlier in March, an even older wallet with 489 bitcoins was activated before dumping holdings dating back to October 2010.
That said, the activation of old wallets often creates a buzz of enthusiasm among crypto enthusiasts, with some speculating that the devices could have gone to jail or misplaced the keys. However, according to monitoring resource Whalemap, the awakening of dormant wallets usually indicates an OTC trade, meaning someone is willing to buy these bitcoins immediately.
Notably, this activation also raises the possibility that they may belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous Bitcoin inventor whose identity and whereabouts remain unknown. For years, the crypto community has speculated that Satoshi may hold hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin.
Although it is not empirically known how many coins he owned, researchers such as veteran cryptocurrency security consultant Sergio Demian Lerner have estimated Satoshi’s fortune to be around 1M Bitcoins. These coins were mainly accumulated during the formative years of the pioneer cryptocurrency through mining.
