Fifth Largest Bitcoin Whale Awakens After 5 Years

According to data from the on-chain tracking platform Arkham Intelligence, an address holding 94,500 Bitcoins (equivalent to $6.6 billion USD at present) has unexpectedly sprung into action after years of dormancy.

Specifically, in 2019, this wallet address received a massive amount of Bitcoin worth $6.6 billion USD at current prices. This substantial sum had remained dormant in the wallet until this past weekend when it was suddenly split and transferred to new addresses. Currently, the original wallet address holds only 1.4 Bitcoins (approximately $99,000 USD).

The wallet owner divided the Bitcoin into two portions, with one portion sent intact to a new wallet and the other portion further divided and sent to two additional wallets. As a result, the entire 94,500 BTC is now spread across three separate wallets – one containing $5 billion USD worth of Bitcoin, and the remaining two wallets evenly distributing the remaining Bitcoin.

Miguel Morel, CEO of Arkham, stated:

Most large Bitcoin-holding wallets are typically associated with restructuring activities or the movement of storage reserves for exchanges. However, this wallet has very little transaction activity and shows no signs of association with any exchange.

Notably, with a Bitcoin holding of 94,500 BTC, the owner of this wallet ranks fifth among the wealthiest individuals/organizations holding Bitcoin worldwide. Previously, Arkham has identified the largest Bitcoin “whales” as leading platforms or companies such as Coinbase, Grayscale, Robinhood, Tether, MicroStrategy, Tesla, SpaceX, and Marathon Digital Holdings.

This is the first significant movement of Bitcoin by an individual wallet in recent times. The most recent activity was in January 2024 when an anonymous wallet sent 27 BTC to Satoshi Nakamoto’s original address. In November 2023, three other dormant Bitcoin wallets since 2017 also became active and transferred around 7,000 BTC to the Bitfinex exchange.

Related: Standard Chartered Forecasts Bitcoin to Rise to $250,000

Bitcoin Market Reaction to the News

This activity has not had a significant impact on the Bitcoin price in the market. Currently, Bitcoin is still trading around the $70,000 mark.