Whale Alert, a well-known crypto tracker, has recently shared intriguing news about a whale that has emerged from hibernation. This particular whale had been dormant since the time of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious founder of Bitcoin. However, it has now come to life, holding a substantial amount of Bitcoin worth millions of dollars. The sudden reactivation of this previously inactive wallet occurred after Bitcoin experienced a significant drop on Saturday, followed by a partial recovery.
In a surprising turn of events, a crypto miner from the early days made a move by transferring 50 Bitcoin (BTC) that had been left untouched for 14 years. This is a rare occurrence, as it involves Bitcoin from the early days, also known as the “Satoshi era,” being transferred. The transferred holdings, which were valued at over $3 million as of Monday, were sent to two wallets during the Asian morning hours. Analysis tool Lookonchain reported that a portion of these transfers were ultimately sent to the crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN).
According to blockchain data, the miner was rewarded with 50 BTC in April 2010, shortly after the network’s launch. At that time, the value of Bitcoin was only a few dollars. This period, known as the Satoshi era, was when Satoshi Nakamoto actively participated in online forums from late 2009 to 2011.
Notably, there have been several BTC wallets that have remained active since the beginning of 2023. In July, a wallet that had been inactive for 11 years suddenly transferred $30 million worth of Bitcoin to different wallets. Then, in August, another wallet transferred 1,005 BTC to a new address. In December, more than 1,000 bitcoins from an early miner were transferred to trading desks and custodian services after 13 years of inactivity.
The reason behind the resurgence of these wallets remains uncertain, but their unexpected activity has sparked interest and speculation within the cryptocurrency community. It is possible that a lost or forgotten Bitcoin wallet has been rediscovered by its original owner. Wallets from the Satoshi era are particularly intriguing because they were used during the time when Satoshi Nakamoto was actively involved in the crypto community. As a result, these wallets are closely monitored, as any activity within them could potentially be linked to early adopters who have chosen to maintain a low profile.
There has been a noticeable increase in the activity of previously dormant crypto wallets that have been inactive for 10-14 years. Some individuals who possess Bitcoin coins acquired in the early stages, as well as Ethereum obtained during the ICO in 2014, choose to sell their long-held assets after a decade in order to take advantage of the significant increase in BTC or ETH prices. However, in many cases, users are finally able to recover their long-lost private keys.
Over the weekend, Bitcoin experienced a significant drop of over 12% on Saturday, falling from its recently recovered value of $70,900 to $61,970. Some speculate that this drop may be attributed to a recent development in the Middle East. However, Bitcoin has since made a strong recovery of over 7%, currently trading at $66,291. Additionally, the current global crypto market cap stands at $2.53 trillion, with a 4.73% change in the last 24 hours and a significant 90.73% change compared to one year ago.
Currently, BTC’s market cap stands at $1.3 trillion, indicating a Bitcoin dominance of 51.46%. Meanwhile, the market cap of Stablecoins stands at $157 billion, representing a 6.19% share of the total crypto market cap.