A bitcoin (BTC) whale just moved 2,000 BTC to Coinbase. That’s worth about $178 million! This user has held onto their stash since 2010, according to Mempool data.
Back in 2010, the price of BTC was only $0.06 per coin. The market cap was around $250,000. Can you imagine? Trading volume rarely topped $60,000 a day back then.
When we see inflows like this to an exchange, it usually means the BTC might be sold. This transfer fits a trend where dormant bitcoin wallets are waking up. It’s happening after a recent surge in the market, especially following Donald Trump’s U.S. election win earlier this month. Glassnode reports a rise in wallets that have been inactive for over five years, hitting a two-month high.
Right now, bitcoin is trading at $88,532. It cooled off after hitting a record high of $93,214 on Wednesday.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen older wallets come back to life as bitcoin hits new highs this year. There have been at least two instances where millions of BTC from the late 2009 to 2011 period, known as the "Satoshi Era," moved from dormant wallets. It’s tough to say if those bitcoins were sold, but with the current prices, the profits could be huge!
We might see more of these older wallets becoming active. They could cash in on significant profits at today’s prices. However, this could also limit further price increases. Still, some traders are optimistic. They believe bitcoin could reach $100,000—a key psychological resistance level—by year-end.
It’s worth noting that Chainalysis estimates between 3 to 4 million BTC has been “lost forever.” This is due to users losing access to their private keys. So, some of these “OG” wallets may never be able to cash out.