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An address containing over $26 million worth of bitcoin has just been activated after laying dormant for just over nine years, sparking some wild speculation.
The transaction was spotted earlier this week by Whale Alert, a popular blockchain tracker which tweets and reports about significant movement in cryptocurrency wallet activity.
The mystery address contained 740 bitcoins (worth approximately $26,147,621 USD, as of July 15 2021) and reportedly transferred some 640 bitcoins ($21,104,060) to another wallet on July 12 2021. When this address was last used around 9.1 years ago, the heap of bitcoins would have been worth approximately $10,000.
While this sum of money might be eye-watering to most, Whale Alert regularly sees millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency being transferred here, there, and everywhere. The significance of this activity lies in the fact this address had remained idle for a little over nine years, just three years after bitcoin was launched, suggesting the owner/owners of the address were an early adopter of the cryptocurrency.
There have even been some tongue-in-cheek suggestions that this activity might be the movements of the enigmatic creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who created bitcoin. This person or persons have gained a near-legendary status since the advent of bitcoin. While many have claimed to be Satoshi, most would agree their identity remains a mystery or at least uncertain. Whoever they may be, they are believed to be in possession of over 1 million bitcoin, worth over $31.8 billion as of July 15 2021.
There is, however, no hard evidence to link this recent activity to Satoshi. While this address was perhaps an early bitcoin miner, there were a number of people mining alongside Satoshi during the first few years of bitcoin.
Others have joked whether this activity is the result of an early bitcoin adopter remembering their wallet's password after several years of anxiety and strife. One person tweeted: "That glorious moment when you finally remember your first pets name."
Recent months have seen similarly mysterious activity from “old-school bitcoin whales,” especially following the crash earlier this year. In June 2021, another address that had been idle for almost nine years reportedly shipped about $34 million worth of bitcoin to another wallet.
