• A dormant Bitcoin wallet with 6,071.5 BTC ($178 million) has become active after almost 10 years of inactivity.
• The owner of this wallet acquired the coins back in 2013 when one BTC was retailing for around $663.
• The transaction wasn’t made to a centralized exchange, which would normally signify an intent to sell, but rather another unknown wallet.
Bitcoin Whale Awakens After 10 Years
The crypto market recently saw a massive run that pushed Bitcoin’s price above $30,000 and now a long-dormant BTC whale has awoken. This particular address had been inactive for almost a decade with BTC it had acquired at very cheap prices. It contained 6,071.5 BTC worth $178 million at the time of its last transaction on December 19th 2013, when one BTC was retailing for around $663.
Transaction Not Made To Exchange
The whale reentered the market by making its first transaction in almost a decade on April 20th 2023 – transferring 2,071.5 BTC worth $60.7 million at the time of the transaction – but not to an exchange as might be expected for someone looking to sell their coins; instead it was sent to another unknown wallet where the BTC now sits.
Reasons For Dormancy
It is not unheard of for wallets holding large amounts of Bitcoin to become dormant over long periods of time and there can be multiple reasons why this happens such as loss of private keys or death; however in this instance it looks like the owner has finally regained control of their wallet and initiated the transaction themselves.
Significance Of Transaction
Whilst this kind of activity can usually be seen as bearish for Bitcoin on account of so much capital entering or leaving circulation at once, it does not seem like this whale is looking to sell so its impact may be minimal in comparison; especially given that any potential sale wouldn’t have gone through an exchange anyway but instead been sent directly from one private address to another without touching a third party service provider or institution first .
Conclusion
This isn’t the first time that a dormant wallet carrying a large amount of Bitcoin has returned from dormancy and won’t be the last; however what makes this instance unique is how long its content had been sitting untouched before being moved once again and how strikingly similar its current value is compared with what it was bought at all those years ago despite all major price fluctuations since then!
