A bitcoin whale came to life on Sunday, moving $40 billion worth of coins to a new address after more than a decade of inactivity.
The transfer took place around 19:16 UTC, according to blockchain tracking service Whale Alert. The coins were moved from the address “1KAA8GGhVjjUjVTz1HKAjCyGNzAKQd882j” to “bc1qm6m6d33d02edr0k8yj9jgt027zl6dvx6thjrxy”.
The wallet had remained dormant since November 2013, when BTC was originally acquired, and subsequently remained untouched for over a decade.
The reason for the latest transfer is still unclear. Large holders often move coins between wallets for address management or security purposes, although such activity may also precede sales or transfers to exchanges. In this case, the destination address does not appear to be linked to a known exchange wallet.
Dormant bitcoin wallets have increasingly resurfaced since BTC first crossed the $100,000 mark in late 2024. Several early investors and miners moved long-standing coins over the past year, with some finally turning a profit after bitcoin’s massive rally.
The trend was most intense in July last year, when blockchain analysis firms pointed to eight Satoshi-era wallets, each holding 10,000 BTC, moving their coins for the first time in 14 years. These transfers occurred when bitcoin was trading above $100,000 and near all-time highs.
At the time of writing, bitcoin changed hands around $80,700, a drop of more than 1% since midnight UTC, according to market data from CoinDesk.
