On October 22 at 4:52 p.m. (EDT), a miner that acquired 50 bitcoin on May 17, 2010, spent the funds that sat idle for 11 years and five months. There hasn’t been a 2010 Block Reward spent in three months and the last time a 2010 miner spent their “sleeping bitcoin” was July 4, 2021. After waiting patiently for more than a decade, the miner who spent the ‘sleeping bitcoin’ on Friday saw a percentage gain of 76,249,900% if the individual cashed out into U.S. dollars today.
Old-school miner spends block reward in 2010 after bitcoin has rested for more than a decade
It has been a while since a 2010 “sleeping bitcoin” block reward was spent and on Friday a block reward from that era was transferred after sitting for 11 years and five months. The 2010 block reward was transferred at block height 706,461 and at today’s exchange rate it was worth just over $3 million. (Updated at 11:25 a.m. EDT on 10-24-21).
Bitcoin.com News, along with help from the creator of the blockchain analyzer btcparser.com, and members of the Telegram channel “Gold Found In Sand” identify these old-school miners from 2010 and beyond since a while. Prior to Friday’s 2010, block reward spend, the last 2010 block transferred was on July 4, 2021.
On September 28, 2021, an in-depth ‘sleeping bitcoin’ report showed that old-school miners from 2010 to 2013 transferred $ 1 billion in BTC (using exchange rates on the day of the release of the study) or 23,250 BTC transferred.
2010 Block Reward Transfers Become Infrequent, Friday’s Transfer Would Net 76 Million Percent in Gains if Sold for USD
The 2010 block reward move on Friday, if exchanged for fiat would be worth over $3.1 million, as bitcoin (BTC) opened the day on Friday exchanging hands for $62,237 per unit. Remarkably, when the bitcoin miner acquired the coins, the entire lot was only worth $ 4. The miner decided to wait and not spend it at $0.08 per unit, which was the price equivalent of a single bitcoin in June-July 2010.
The miner would manage to earn a huge 76,249,900% increase in value if he decided to exchange the funds for fiat that day. Meanwhile as mentioned above, 2010 block reward spends have been far and few between during the last four months. However, there was a higher number of bulk reward transfers in 2011.
Prior to Friday’s 2010 block, 13 block rewards from 2011 were moved on the blockchain in October alone. Using the October 23 exchange rates, this represents a value of $ 39.5 million if it is exchanged for a fiat. This is because the terms “spent” or “spend” in this article do not necessarily mean that the bitcoins were “sold” to a third party like a popular crypto exchange.
The 2010 transfer of October 22 did not see the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) or bitcoinsv (BSV) moved. Those coins remain idle to this day as the stash of BCH is worth $31,312 and the BSV is worth $8,595 at the time of writing. All 2010 block rewards mined around this time will have BCH and BSV attached to private keys, alongside the myriad of lesser-known BTC forks.
Additionally, the mystery whale that was caught by Bitcoin.com News and help from btcparser.com, has not returned to move strings of bitcoin rewards in over three months. The last time we caught the infamous 2010 mining whale was June 9, 2021, at a block height of 686,865.
The whale was quite special because it constantly spent 1,000 BTC or 20 block rewards from 2010 in a single block. We can’t say if the whale that has consistently spent 20 bulk rewards from 2010 will not return. Prior to the June 9 spend of 1,000 ‘sleeping bitcoin,’ worth $35 million at the time of transfer, the whale waited 78 days to come back.
