A bitcoin whale came back 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 been inactive since November 2013, when BTC was initially acquired and subsequently kept untouched for more than a decade.
The reason behind 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 associated with a known exchange wallet.
Dormant bitcoin wallets have increasingly resurfaced since BTC first crossed the $100,000 mark in late 2024. Several early stage investors and miners have moved long coins over the past year, with some ultimately taking profits following bitcoin’s massive rally.
The trend was most intense last July, when blockchain analytics firms flagged eight Satoshi-era wallets, each containing 10,000 BTC, moving their coins for the first time in 14 years. These transfers came as bitcoin was trading above $100,000 and hovering near all-time highs.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was changing hands near $80,700, down more than 1% since midnight UTC, according to CoinDesk’s market data.
