- Satoshi-era Bitcoin wallets dormant since 2009 have moved 250 BTC to new addresses
- The five wallets transferred BTC in batches of 50 coins each
- Bitcoin traded around $63,500, after touching highs above $64,000 on major exchanges
Several Bitcoin miner wallets that had been inactive for more than 15 years—so-called “Satoshi-era” addresses—have moved a total of 250 BTC, worth over $15 million at current prices.
These addresses were created in 2009, during the period when Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, and early miners were actively mining blocks and receiving block rewards. According to on-chain trackers, five of those early miner wallets each transferred 50 BTC to newly generated wallet addresses.
Blockchain monitoring service Whale Alert flagged the five transfers of 50 BTC apiece. Together, the moved coins represent approximately $15.9 million moved from long-dormant addresses into new wallets.
💤 A dormant address containing 50 #BTC (3,182,908 USD) has just been activated after 15.6 years!https://t.co/rVRMOiMAfP
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 20, 2024
Social media researcher Lookonchain shared screenshots of Whale Alert’s posts highlighting the reactivated addresses. Each of the five miner wallets originally received coins as mining rewards in 2009 and had remained inactive since those first transactions.
As of this report, none of the receiving addresses have sent the coins to a cryptocurrency exchange.
This is not the first time long-dormant Bitcoin wallets have moved after many years. In March 2024, a wallet that had been inactive for over 12 years moved 500 BTC. Another multi-year dormant wallet was reactivated in April 2023, drawing attention each time due to the age of the funds and questions about who controls them.
Bitcoin’s price
The movements from these Satoshi-era wallets occurred as Bitcoin’s price recovered above $64,000, reacting to this week’s U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate cut. The benchmark cryptocurrency has struggled to sustain higher levels in recent months, including a notable pullback below $50,000 on August 5, 2024.
Crypto analyst Ali Martinez noted that technical indicators might prompt traders to take profits at current levels. According to his commentary, the TD Sequential signaled a buy around $57,400 and later suggested booking some profits near $63,700.
The TD Sequential told you to buy #Bitcoin at $57,400, and now it is telling you to book some profits at $63,700! pic.twitter.com/0h1yNowkae
— Ali (@ali_charts) September 20, 2024
On Friday, September 20, 2024, BTC briefly reached $64,140 on Coinbase before trading around $63,513 at the time of writing. Market participants will be watching whether the reactivation of long-dormant coins affects short-term price action, though no direct selling on exchanges was observed from these specific transfers.