Two whale wallets move $61 million worth of BTC after a decade of dormancy

Author: Brayden Lindrea, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

Two mysterious Bitcoin (BTC) wallets holding a total of 1,000 Bitcoins (worth $61 million at current prices) suddenly woke up after a lapse of 10 years and transferred almost all of their Bitcoins.

According to Bitcoin block data from Blockchain.com, the wallet address "16vRq…qjzEa" transferred 500 Bitcoins at 7:10 pm UTC on May 12 in block 843,131, while another 500 Bitcoins were sent two blocks later from the address "1DUJuH…NgfC5".

According to Coingecko data, each wallet received 500 bitcoins on September 12 and September 13, 2013, when the price of bitcoin was $134.

At current prices, the total amount of the transaction is $61.2 million, 456 times the price at which it was received.

Since the transfer, one of the receiving addresses from "16vRq…qjzEa" has transferred 500 bitcoins to many people, while the receiving address from "1DUJuH…NgfC5" still holds 500 bitcoins.

The similarity of the transfers prompted blockchain analysis company Lookonchain to pair the two transactions together, and onlookers believe that the two wallets belong to the same person or entity.

Source: Lookonchain

Before the transfer, the two addresses ranked 4,353rd among Bitcoin whales, according to BitInfoCharts.

Less than a week ago, the Satoshi-era Bitcoin wallet moved 687 Bitcoins (worth $43.9 million) to two different addresses.

While these early Bitcoin wallets are awakened at least once a month, nearly 1.8 million Bitcoin addresses have been dormant for more than a decade, according to a recent analysis by Chainalysis and Fortune.

Fortune says those wallets, excluding Satoshi’s, contain about $121 billion worth of bitcoin.

While it’s impossible to know how much has been lost, the 1.8 million addresses represent 8.5% of the 21 million bitcoins in existence.

People often speculate that dormant wallets may wake up in due time and sell bitcoins, while others suggest it could be the case that the funds are moved to another address, perhaps under the management of a more secure non-custodial wallet service provider.

According to CoinGecko, bitcoin is currently priced at $61,450, up 130% in the past 12 months.

Bitcoin price changes since April 2013. Source: Coingecko