Dormant bitcoin whale holding over $50 million in BTC wakes up for first time in 13 years

Quick Take

A bitcoin wallet containing around 445 BTC worth over $50 million has woken up after being dormant for 13 years.
The whale moved 132 BTC to a new address and deposited 5 BTC into Kraken, according to onchain analysts.

A dormant bitcoin wallet that contained 444.81 BTC ($50.7 million) transferred funds for the first time in nearly 13 years on Thursday morning, according to onchain data.

An outbound send, totaling around 137.03 BTC ($15.6 million), was initiated at 11:27 a.m. UTC, data from blockchain explorer Mempool shows. The whale transferred approximately 132 BTC to a new address and sent 5 BTC to a Kraken deposit address, per Arkham labelling.

The address was last active on Nov. 26, 2012, receiving the same 137.03 BTC amount, when its 444.81 BTC balance was then worth just $5,437, blockchain monitoring platform Onchain Lens noted on X.

The reason for the transfers remains unknown, as does the identity of the wallet's ownership, though the smaller crypto exchange transfer could be indicative of selling.

With bitcoin currently trading for around $114,025, according to The Block’s BTC Price Page, the value of the bitcoin the address transferred has risen more than 9,300 times since the funds were last moved in 2012 at a bitcoin price of just $12.22.

The original "1Q397" address still holds around 307.79 BTC, worth $35.1 million, onchain data shows.

Increased bitcoin OG whale movements

OG bitcoin wallets have ramped up their activity in recent months as the foremost cryptocurrency continued to make new all-time highs.

In July, Galaxy Digital sold off more than 80,000 BTC, valued at over $9 billion at the time, for a Satoshi-era investor related to the client's estate planning requirements, though the large, relatively fast sale was absorbed by the market well. The funds were moved for the first time in 14 years ahead of the sale.

More recently, a bitcoin OG continued to ramp up a significant rotation from BTC to ETH this month. The wallet, which initially held over $5 billion in bitcoin, has amassed nearly $4 billion in Ethereum so far.

Another bitcoin address containing around 479 BTC, worth $53 million, also woke up after being dormant for almost 13 years last week.

Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.