Dormant address containing $60 million in bitcoin wakes up after nearly 12 years

A dormant Bitcoin wallet address containing 1,000 BTC currently worth over $60 million transferred funds for the first time in nearly 12 years on Sunday, according to onchain data.

The wallet received the bitcoin 11 years and 9 months ago, onchain data shows, and had yet to make an outgoing transaction until Sunday, at which point the wallet sent the 1,000 BTC to a new address. However, that transaction was first broadcast on January 19, 2024, according to Blockchain.com data. 

At the time the wallet, first spotted by on-chain monitoring platform Whale Alert, received the bitcoin, the value of the holdings was merely $12,100 according to historical price data. After holding for nearly twelve years, the wallet has seen a roughly 500,000% increase in the value of the coins. 

The reason for the transfer remains unknown, as does the identity of the wallet's owner. However, at the time the transaction was originally broadcast over the network, the holdings were worth about $41.6 million. The delay between when the transaction was broadcast and when it was actually mined means the bitcoin is now worth nearly $20 million more due to bitcoin's increase in price. 

Recent bitcoin whale movements

Just ten days ago, another wallet dormant for a similar length of time, over twelve years, woke up and transferred nearly $7 million in funds. 

On May 12, 1,000 BTC worth over $60 million was moved for the first time in a decade. That followed a send of 687.33 BTC — worth over $44 million — that was also moved for the first time in 10 years, just a week earlier.

In March, the fifth richest address on the Bitcoin blockchain, which had been dormant since 2019, moved $6 billion. Another entity also combined $140 million in bitcoin mined in 2010 into a single wallet during the same month.

In January, nearly 50,000 dormant bitcoin woke up less than a week after spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds were approved in the United States.