Sleeping Bitcoin Wallet Awakens: $3.7M Worth of BTC Suddenly Moves After Close to 12 Years of Dormancy

A vintage wallet created in June 2011 suddenly moved 139.7 BTC on May 11, 2023. This was equivalent to $3.7M at the time. Btcparser.com reported the activity at block size 789,291, at 8:14 p.m. UTC.

The last bitcoin transfer of 2011 took place on April 24, and involved transferring 400 BTC to block height 786.801. The wallet which received the 139.7 Bitcoin still has the funds on May 12, 2023 at 9:00 am (ET).

Inactive wallets of 2010, 2011 and collectively sent a staggering 1,125.37 BTC, valued at approximately $30 million based on current Bitcoin exchange rates.

On June 19, 2011, the address that was responsible for sending out 139.7 BTC received a smaller amount of 134.669 BTC. On July 13, 2011, it had accumulated another batch – 5.04 BTC. This was followed by several tiny deposits, referred to collectively as “dust transactions”, amounting to approximately 0.00000547 BTC.

According to Blockchair’s Privacy-o-meter, the recent transaction involved 139.7 BTC and received a privacy score of moderate 45 out 100. The transaction has two problems: the entire balance of the bitcoin was sent to another address, and several iterations were entered for that address.

The issues aren’t severe, but can be tracked by monitoring applications that examine linked transactions. The BCH associated with the wallet also hasn’t been used.