With the crypto market’s valuation sitting at $3.33 trillion and bitcoin holding steady above the $90,000 range for a cumulative 43 non-consecutive days, an intriguing trend has emerged—vintage crypto wallets have started stirring after years of inactivity.
Million-Dollar Transfers From Long-Inactive Crypto Wallets
As 2024 wraps up, digital currency prices stand significantly higher than where they began the year. These elevated prices have prompted long-term holders to reevaluate their strategies, leading to movements of cryptocurrencies that had remained untouched for years. Recently, Bitcoin.com News spotlighted a few aged bitcoin unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) being moved for the first time in over a decade. Similar activities involving dormant crypto wallets have also been observed across other blockchains.
Just two days ago, on Dec. 27, Whale Alert—a blockchain tracking tool—spotted a Genesis ethereum wallet transferring 1,940 ether, valued at $6.5 million, after lying dormant for 9.4 years. The wallet continues to hold 467.77 ether, a portion that, unlike the Genesis ether, wasn’t initially acquired on July 30, 2015. Onchain data showed the ether was transferred to a wallet identified as linked to Coinbase. On Saturday, Dec. 28, additional bitcoin (BTC) holdings were moved from wallets that had been inactive for years.
On Sunday, Sani, the owner and operator of timechainindex.com, took to social media to highlight a wallet that shifted 7,000 BTC after a seven-year hiatus. Sharing the wallet address, Sani remarked, “This chad held on to 7,000 BTC for 7 years, hodled from 62M$ to 663M$, the funds haven’t been sold they just split them into 1,000 BTC addresses.” This wallet, belonging to a significant holder, was originally created on April 20, 2018, and previously contained 9,465.71 BTC. Over the weekend, btcparser.com also spotted a long-inactive address from 2014 moving funds.
The legacy Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) address, created on Jan. 10, 2014, transferred 357.40 BTC today, valued at $33.9 million. The transaction was confirmed in block 876,810, with the entire sum sent to an unidentified Pay-to-Witness-Public-Key-Hash (P2WPKH) wallet. While the bitcoins are now worth $33.9 million based on current rates, their value back in 2014, when they were first acquired, was just $302,360.
Blockchair.com’s privacy analysis tool rated the 2014 transaction with a “low” score of 35 out of 100, where 100 represents the highest level of privacy. This low score stemmed from matched addresses and repeated use of the same address in inputs. Similarly, the 2018 wallet transfer received a score of 45 out of 100, facing similar privacy issues for repeated use of the same address and sending round amounts.
The recent flurry of activity from crypto wallets, long asleep, paints a picture of strategic evolution over the years and the enduring legacy of early adopters. As these awakenings echo through blockchain networks, they unveil a steadfast faith in decentralized settlement systems. As always, the future of these revived assets continues to be a fascinating spectacle.
