Bitcoin Wallets Dormant for Over a Decade Move $40M in One Week

Somewhere out there, six people may have just remembered they own Bitcoin, or cracked open an old hard drive, or got their prayers heard and recovered an old key.

It isn't clear what the case may be, but Galaxy Research has been keeping count: Six Bitcoin wallets dormant since 2011, 2012, and 2014 moved a combined 553.59 BTC between Aug. 16 and Aug. 26, worth a combined $40.15 million.

It's a rare thing for 2011 through 2014-era holders to keep control of their original coins, which is why on-chain sleuths jump on every one that stirs.

The first wallet, which woke up on Aug. 16, held just 8.54 BTC that had sat completely still since June 13, 2011---15.1 years ago---before moving in block 962,770 at 18:42 UTC. The coins cost about $14 apiece to acquire back then, and were worth $538,000 when they finally moved---a 461,981% gain.

There is no sender attribution on the wallet, so whoever it is kept their keys quiet.

Two days later brought the biggest single potential payday of the batch. Galaxy reported 212 BTC moving out of a wallet dormant since Aug. 10, 2012---14.0 years. Those coins are now worth $13.66 million, a potential 557,640% return on a roughly $12 basis if sold.

This wallet came with a label attached: "Noah Doe #1396 · Salomon Client Dusted," linking it to the New York lawsuit that's trying to claim tens of thousands of old Bitcoin addresses as abandoned property.

Just hours later, another 2011 wallet joined the party. Galaxy flagged 10.74 BTC, today worth $692,000, leaving a wallet dormant since June 17, 2011. This one again had no label, so the sender and recipient remain unknown for now.

After a four-day pause, two moves from ancient Bitcoin wallets came within about two hours of each other on Aug. 22. Galaxy tracked 150 BTC leaving a wallet dormant since Dec. 26, 2014 worth $11.75 million and tagged "Noah Doe #1680" for a potential 23,701% gain.

Then, just after 3 a.m. UTC, the week's fifth wallet awoke. Galaxy's tracking showed 132.31 BTC worth $10.37 million moving out of three separate 2011 addresses in block 963,519. Galaxy broke the gains out address by address: The wallet beginning in "1EG5DvjR" stands to pocket $4.45 million (+629,068%), while "1928FWqd" moved $404,000 (+625,826%), and "1EBzWeno" moved $5.51 million---the steepest potential gain of the three at +807,639%, on a basis of roughly $10 a coin.

The sixth and most recent wallet moved just today, and this one didn't drift into the void like the others. Galaxy flagged 40 BTC leaving a wallet dormant since May 28, 2012---14.2 years---in block 964,127 at 10:54 UTC. No sender tag, but the destination is labeled---Boerse Stuttgart Digital, a German crypto custody bank---and at a roughly $5 cost basis, the gain works out to 1,535,911%, the best return of the six by a mile.

Why now?

Nobody knows for sure the logic behind a specific move, and since Bitcoin is pseudonymous, there isn't usually a way to contact a whale and ask why they move their coins.

But, while we're speculating, two forces could be plausible suspects for these flags. The first is the Noah Doe case, a New York Supreme Court suit in which a pseudonymous plaintiff wants a court to declare 39,069 dormant Bitcoin addresses abandoned property under the state's lost-property statute.

Plaintiffs served notice by mailing thousands of wallets a tiny "dust" transaction with an on-chain message---Galaxy calls it "Salomon-dusted"---and a judge paused a default judgment in the case in early June. Since then, named addresses have been waking up on a regular basis, and two of this batch's six carry that tag.

The second is simpler paranoia. Decrypt reported that in the days around the Coldcard hardware wallet exploit---a firmware flaw that drained roughly $130 million starting in late July---some 233,000 BTC left long-term holder wallets entirely, as owners of Coldcard, Ledger, and Trezor devices alike rushed to move funds to safer setups even though most of that supply was never at risk.

Neither theory covers the other four wallets in this batch, which is the honest answer: sometimes a decade-old wallet just moves, though the pace with which they have been moving lately is notable.

The trend of old Bitcoin wallets suddenly showing life extends for at least the last two years, but has accelerated in the last six months. Earlier this month, a wallet dormant since January 2014 swept out 26.96 BTC after 12.5 years, part of what Galaxy Research described at the time as a pattern that's only getting more frequent.

None of the six destination addresses over the last week have been linked to an exchange, save for the one that landed directly at Boerse Stuttgart Digital. The other five could be sitting in cold storage right now, or they could be one hop from a sale. Across all six, Galaxy Research's running tally sits at 553.59 BTC, worth $40.15 million at the moment each coin moved.