A massive Bitcoin holder has moved 8,000 Bitcoin (BTC) valued at $536.5 million from a cold storage wallet on Coinbase after being inactive for over five years. The entire 8,000 BTC was sent to the Binance deposit address “15u4H…rMsLa” in a swift transaction just 11 minutes after being received at block 847,490 on June 11 at 1:26 pm UTC, as reported by blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. There were no prior test transactions before the transfers.
The original 8,000 Bitcoin was accumulated through multiple transfers on December 5, 2018, with most transfers being in batches of 200 BTC. The sudden activity of dormant addresses with substantial holdings could signify a potential sell-off, especially when the funds are sent to an exchange deposit address.
While it remains uncertain whether the Bitcoin wallet owner cashed out, the transfer represented an impressive increase of nearly 1,700% from the acquisition price of $3,750 on December 5, 2018.
This recent transfer is part of a trend where dormant Bitcoin wallets with significant holdings are becoming active. In a similar move, two connected Bitcoin wallets transferred a combined 1,000 Bitcoin worth $61 million on May 12. Additionally, a wallet believed to be from the era of Satoshi Nakamoto moved 687 Bitcoin, valued at almost $44 million, to two separate addresses a week earlier.
Despite the occasional awakening of early Bitcoin wallets, there are still around 1.8 million dormant Bitcoin addresses that have remained inactive for over a decade, according to a report by Chainalysis and Fortune on April 24. These wallets, excluding Nakamoto’s wallet, hold approximately $121 billion worth of Bitcoin at current prices. However, many of these wallet owners may have lost or forgotten their seed phrases required to access their Bitcoin holdings.
Although Bitcoin recently experienced a price drop of 7.5% from its local high of $71,650 on June 7 to $66,250 on June 11, the overall sentiment in the crypto market, as indicated by the Fear & Greed Index, remains in the “Greed” zone with a score of 74 out of 100.
In conclusion, the movement of significant amounts of Bitcoin from dormant wallets to exchange addresses raises questions about the potential comeback of Bitcoin payments in the future.