Two Bitcoin addresses that had been dormant since 2010 moved 50 BTC each on Friday, together worth about $6.9 million. The coins are early mining rewards. The owner's identity and intentions remain unknown.
Two Bitcoin addresses dormant since 2010 moved $6.9 million worth of BTC on Friday, bringing two early mining rewards back into circulation after more than 16 years. Both transfers involved coins generated through mining, not coins bought on an exchange.
Two 50 BTC rewards move within minutes
Blockchain tracking service Whale Alert flagged the first transfer at 4:08 a.m. UTC on November 13, when 50 BTC worth approximately $3.44 million left an address that had not spent its mining reward since September 2010. Just over two minutes later, another 50 BTC moved from a separate wallet with an equally long history.
The coins came from two blocks mined on September 8 and September 19, 2010. Back then, Bitcoin traded for roughly six cents, so each 50 BTC reward was worth about three bucks.
A 114,751,033% paper gain
At Friday's prices of around $68,800 per Bitcoin, the combined value had risen approximately 1,147,511 times, equivalent to a 114,751,033% increase.
That figure measures the rise in Bitcoin's market price, not money the holder made by selling. It is unknown whether the transaction was a peer-to-peer transfer, an OTC sell, or a wallet switch for security reasons.
Coins split across new addresses
The first transaction split the 50 BTC into two new addresses, sending nearly 49.99 BTC to one and approximately 0.01 BTC to another. The second followed a similar pattern, with nearly 49 BTC going to one address and approximately 1 BTC to another.
Each transaction cost just 1,110 satoshis in network fees, approximately $0.75. As of an on-chain check at approximately 14:00 UTC Friday, the 100 BTC had not moved again and no sale had been identified.
Source: Decrypt
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