A bitcoin whale that went silent in 2013 moves $40 million in BTC

A long-dormant whale woke up Sunday, moving millions worth of bitcoin on-chain.

What to know:

• A long-dormant bitcoin “whale” wallet moved about $40 billion in BTC on Sunday.
• The transfer, detected around 7:16 p.m. UTC, shifted funds to a new address that is not associated with any known exchange, leaving the motive for the move unclear.

A bitcoin whale came back to life Sunday, moving coins worth $40 billion to a new address after more than a decade of inactivity.

The transfer took place at around 19:16 UTC, according to blockchain tracking service Whale Alert. The coins were moved from address “1KAA8GGhVjjUjVTz1HKAjCyGNzAKQd882j” to “bc1qm6m6d33d02edr0k8yj9jgt027zl6dvx6thjrxy.”

The wallet had remained inactive since November 2013, when BTC was originally acquired and subsequently held untouched for more than a decade.

The reason behind the latest transfer remains unclear. Large holders often move coins between wallets for address management or security purposes, though such activity can also precede sales or transfers to exchanges. In this case, the destination address does not appear to be linked to a known exchange wallet.

Dormant bitcoin wallets have increasingly resurfaced since BTC first crossed the $100,000 mark in late 2024. Several early investors and miners have moved long-held coins over the past year, with some ultimately taking profits after bitcoin’s massive rally.

The trend was most intense in July last year, when blockchain analytics firms flagged eight Satoshi-era wallets, each holding 10,000 BTC, moving their coins for the first time in 14 years. Those transfers came as bitcoin traded above $100,000 and hovered near all-time highs.

As of writing, bitcoin changed hands near $80,700, down over 1% since midnight UTC, according to CoinDesk's market data.

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