Bitcoin Whale: two dormant wallets since 2013 have moved over 1,000 BTC

Yesterday, May 12th, two wallets belonging to a dormant Bitcoin whale since 2013 executed transactions for a total of over 1,000 BTC. Behind these transactions worth 61 million dollars, it is believed that the same entity is involved. 

Bitcoin Whale: the transaction of over 1,000 BTC from inactive wallets since 2013

On May 12th, while BTC was trading above $61,000, two inactive Bitcoin wallets from 2013 executed transactions, totaling over 1,000 BTC. 

And indeed, after 10 years and 8 months of inactivity, it seems that a bitcoin whale has awakened, as it is believed that the same individual is behind these wallets. 

According to what is reported, at block height 843,131, the wallet identified as “16vRq” transferred 500 BTC. Specifically, the BTC moved from an original Pay to Public Key Hash (P2PKH) address to a modern Pay to Witness Public Key Hash (P2WPKH) wallet.

This 16vRq wallet was created on September 12, 2013 and the transaction on May 12, 2024 achieved a moderate privacy score of about 55. 

About two blocks later, at block height 843,133, a second transaction was executed from another P2PKH wallet known as “1DUJu”, also created on September 12, 2013. This wallet sent 500 BTC, approximately worth 30 million dollars, to another P2WPKH address. 

This transaction mirrors the first one, with 499.99 BTC still in the wallet and a similar privacy score of 60.

Bitcoin Whale: transactions from inactive wallets and the reaction of BTC price

In addition to these two transactions, another wallet of a Bitcoin whale has also been detected, created in May 2013 and inactive since then, which has moved another 108 BTC at block height 843,017. 

Since this transfer also originated from a legacy P2PKH wallet and ended up in a P2WPKH wallet, it is believed that the same entity is behind it, but of course this is not guaranteed. 

Anyway, in the last 24 hours, Bitcoin whale wallets have moved some significant amounts such as the equivalent of over 61 million dollars. 

But how did the price of BTC react? Looking at the price chart, BTC continues to fluctuate around the $61,000 mark, without showing major changes. 

At the time of writing, BTC is worth $61,390, and its market cap exceeds $1.2 trillion. In the last 24 hours, the trading volume of BTC appears to have increased by 37%. 

The wallet of the Satoshi Nakamoto era

Even in this month of May 2024, it seems that another wallet with BTC movements has been reported, created in the era of Satoshi Nakamoto.

Basically, the pseudonym behind the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, disappeared into thin air in 2011. 

This awakened wallet would have sent BTC to two different addresses and then received two more incoming transactions. While the received BTC were of insignificant amounts, the sending was instead of 687 BTC, equal to almost 42.7 million dollars. 

In reality, Satoshi Nakamoto’s BTC wallet was not exactly dormant. In fact, there have been recorded incoming transactions for small amounts of BTC in 2020 and 2021, as well as in 2018, 2016, 2015, and 2014.