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Bitcoin whale moves $34 million in BTC it got in 2013 when coins traded at $131
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- DeepHorus
A Bitcoin wallet dormant since 2013 moved 411.45 BTC on Sunday to a new address, according to Arkham Intelligence. At about $82,600 per coin, the stash is worth roughly $34 million. The owner acquired most of the Bitcoin on Sept. 11, 2013, when it traded near $131. The entire balance was then worth just $54,000.
The holder kept the wallet untouched for over 13 years, through three halvings, the 2017 boom, the 2022 FTX collapse, and the 2024 spot Bitcoin ETF launch. Bitcoinâs value rose more than 600-fold. The wallet received dozens of tiny deposits, some from phishing addresses. These âaddress poisoningâ attempts sent dust worth less than a dollar, but the whale did not fall for it.
At 18:23 UTC, the owner sent the full fortune to a new address and paid just 337 satoshis in fees. The funds have not gone to an exchange. The destination wallet has received only this transfer and made no outgoing transactions. That inactivity suggests routine custodial housekeeping, not an imminent sale.
The move fits a recent pattern. A day earlier, two other wallets dormant for over a decade moved a combined 417 BTC. The week before, a large whale static since the pre-Covid crash migrated funds. Such awakenings often spark speculation about a market dump, but most coins move to new private wallets.
The original wallet used an outdated address format, while the new one uses SegWit (P2WPKH), a modern standard with better security and lower fees. Long-dormant holders often upgrade formats before major financial moves. For now, the lack of exchange activity points to security maintenance.
The event shows how early Bitcoin investors manage decade-old fortunes. It also shows not every dormant whale move signals a sale. This transfer appears to be a security upgrade, not a market signal.
