A long-dormant Bitcoin whale has returned to activity after more than a decade, moving a massive 1,000 BTC worth about $116.6 million on Tuesday. The coins, untouched since January 2014, were originally acquired when Bitcoin traded near $847.
According to on-chain analytics firm Lookonchain, citing Arkham data, the whale’s wallet “1NzH…DrtpZo” transferred the entire stash to four new addresses. Arkham has not yet identified who owns the wallet or the new addresses that received the funds.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $116,542, up 0.90% in the past 24 hours and 4.51% higher over the past week, according to the CoinMarketCap data.
More Dormant Wallets Are Waking Up
The activity comes amid a broader trend of old Bitcoin wallets springing back to life. Just last week, a wallet holding 445 BTC made its first transaction in nearly 13 years, moving 132 BTC to a new address and sending 5 BTC to crypto exchange Kraken.
In July, another Satoshi-era whale sold more than 80,000 BTC, worth over $9 billion at the time, through Galaxy Digital as part of estate planning. These wallet awakenings point to the fact that long-term holders are starting to re-enter the market with Bitcoin still on its upward trend.
Although it is not clear why the latest 1,000 BTC transfer occurred, this type of transaction usually leaves the crypto community speculating on whether whales are about to sell, hedge their assets, or just rearrange their portfolio.
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