On Nov. 16, 2022, at Bitcoin block height 763,474, someone transferred 6,522 bitcoin worth roughly $107 million after the coins sat idle for more than five years. While bitcoin’s value is 75% lower than it was a year ago, so-called sleeping bitcoins have been waking up amid the recent crypto market capitulation.
While the price of bitcoin is 75% lower than a year ago, a group of older bitcoiners begins to move after years of inactivity
Five days ago, 3,500 bitcoins were moved for the first time in 11 years since 2011. In the midst of the crypto market carnage involving FTX, older coins are waking up for some reason, and they are moving to unknown wallets. For example, the bitcoin address “1QBG9,” an address created on November 13, 2011, moved 25 BTC at block height 762,719.
Not too long after that, 50 bitcoin from 2010 were spent on Nov. 14, 2022, after sitting idle for over a decade. The bitcoin address “1LB8B,” which moved the 50 BTC at block height 763,149 was created on May 23, 2010. All three of those sightings were bitcoins stored in addresses that remained idle for more than a decade.
6,522 Bitcoins Worth Over $107 Million Moved After Sleeping Over 5 Years
Two days after 50 bitcoins were transferred since 2010, BTC received from an address created on July 31, 2017, was transferred after more than five years of inactivity. While it is not very old, the blockchain parsers at btcparser.com caught the individual or entity spending approximately 6,522.40 BTC.
The stash is worth more than $107 million using today’s BTC exchange rates. The bitcoin address “1LVBn” is also connected to close to 10,000 BTC first accrued in an address created on May 29, 2011. When the “1LVBn” bitcoin address was created on July 31, 2017, bitcoin was trading for $2,875 per unit according to statmuse.com metrics.
This means that the cache of 6,522 bitcoins before being held in gold for more than five years was worth about $18.7 million. If 6,522 bitcoins were sold today, the owner would have made a profit of over 472%.
If it was the same owner that acquired approximately 9,478.77 BTC on May 29, 2011, the individual could have acquired the bitcoins at $8.30 per unit. At that price in the spring of 2011, the person could have gained roughly 1,189% in profit against the U.S. dollar over 11 years.
Owner sends cash of bitcoins to 2 addresses with zero privacy techniques
However, it does not appear that the funds were sent to an exchange, as the 6,522 bitcoins now reside in two different addresses, according to onchain data. 6,061.83 BTC went to the change address “1AkJq”, and 460.57 BTC went to the address “bc1qt”. Net remittances of 6,522 bitcoin remain inactive at the time of writing.
Throughout the history of the 6,522 BTC spent on Nov. 16, 2022, the transactions have never been sent in a private fashion. Blockchair.com’s privacy tool gives the last change transaction, which moved 6,061.83 BTC, a privacy rating of “0” or “critical.”
Each time the owner of these bitcoins moved the coins, matching inputs and outputs were discovered, making it easily identifiable by blockchain analysis. It is worth noting that the use of the technical term “spend” and the term “change” in this article does not necessarily mean that bitcoins were sold.
In fact, they simply could be transferred to alternative addresses by the same owner. It’s also worth noting that the bitcoins that originated from the wallet on May 29, 2011, which are also associated with the 6,522 BTC spent on Nov. 16, 2022, may have seen ownership change hands either on or off the blockchain.
The owner of the bitcoin address did not spend the bitcoin cash (BCH) associated with the “1LVBn” bitcoin address. At the time of writing the address holds 6,522.40 BCH and the BCH is worth approximately $680,939 in nominal terms.
