A dormant Bitcoin wallet has recently sprung to life, transferring a hefty amount of 8,000 BTC, equivalent to $536.5 million, to a Coinbase cold storage wallet. After a period of over five years of inactivity, this high-value transaction was made with no initial test transactions according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence.
The full amount of BTC was transferred at block 847,490 on June 11 at 1:26 pm UTC. The funds were then moved to a Binance deposit address a mere block and 11 minutes later. Back in December 5, 2018, this now active wallet was populated with these 8,000 BTC across multiple transfers, mostly in increments of 200 BTC.
When large holdings from dormant wallets suddenly turn active, market watchers often interpret this as a sign of selling, especially when funds are moved to an exchange deposit wallet. However, it hasn’t been confirmed whether the owner of these funds cashed out after this transfer. That being said, the transfer signifies a near 1,700% increase from the original acquisition price of $3,750 on Dec. 5, 2018.
It’s not unusual to see these high-value wallets coming back to life – just last month, on May 12, two interconnected wallets moved 1,000 BTC worth $61 million. Also, an early-day wallet from the time of Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, recently transferred 687 BTC (about $44 million).
Despite some old wallets returning to active status, approximately 1.8 million BTC addresses have stayed dormant for over ten years. Today, these wallets equate to roughly $121 billion worth of BTC. However, due to lost or misplaced seed phrases (access requirements for the Bitcoin), the total accessible amount remains unclear. Despite some recent turbulence in Bitcoin’s value, the market sentiment continues to indicate ‘Greed’ according to the Fear & Greed Index.