Bitcoin Bounces Back to $61,000 Alongside Active Whale Activity

Bitcoin has recovered to $61,000, amid intense whale activity. Two mysterious Bitcoin wallets with a total of 1,000 Bitcoin, equivalent to $61 million at current prices, have made headlines for moving most of their Bitcoin out of their wallets after 10 years of silence.

Some Bitcoin was transferred from address “16vRq…qjzEa” into block 843.131 on May 12 at 7:10pm UTC, while the remainder was sent to address “1DUJuH…NgfC5” two blocks later, according to data from explorer Blockchain.com.

According to CoinGecko, each wallet received 500 Bitcoin on September 12 and 13, 2013, when the Bitcoin price was at $134. At the current price, the transferred amount is worth 456 times more than when purchased, reaching 61.2 million USD.

After the transfer, one of the addresses from wallet “16vRq…qjzEa” transferred those Bitcoins to many other addresses, while the recipient from “1DUJuH…NgfC5” kept the same 500 Bitcoins.

The close proximity of transactions between the two addresses led blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain to conclude that it is possible that the two wallets belong to the same owner or organization.

2 wallets that have been dormant for 10.7 years transferred all 1,000 $BTC($60.9M) out in the past 20 mins.

Wallet"16vRqA" received 500 $BTC($62K at that time) on Sept 13, 2013, when the price was $124.

Wallet"1DUJuH" received 500 $BTC($62K at that time) on Sept 12, 2013, when… pic.twitter.com/l5ivjrcRt5

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 12, 2024

Before transferring money, these two addresses were both in the top 4,353 of individuals owning large amounts of Bitcoin, according to BitInfoCharts. Less than a week ago, a Bitcoin wallet linked to Satoshi Nakamoto transferred 687 Bitcoins, worth $43.9 million, to two different addresses.

According to a recent analysis from Chainalysis and Fortune, while at least one of these early Bitcoin wallets tends to become active again each month, there are approximately 1.8 million Bitcoin addresses that have been inactive for more than a decade century.

Related: Metaplanet Purchases $1.25 Million Worth of Bitcoin

Fortune said these wallets, not counting Nakamoto’s, hold about $121 billion worth of Bitcoin. While it is not known for sure how much was lost, the 1.8 million addresses represent 8.5% of the total 21 million Bitcoins that will exist.

Many people often speculate that inactive wallets may become active to sell Bitcoin at the appropriate time, while others suggest that it is possible to transfer funds to another address, possibly under the protection of a safer non-custodial wallet service provider.