On Thursday, an X post from Whale Alert lit up the feeds after revealing that 4,000 BTC—worth a cool $442 million—just woke up from a 14-year nap. Blockchain data shows that out of the long-slumbering stash, 150 BTC quietly tiptoed into a new wallet, leaving the crypto crowd buzzing.
Vintage 2011 Bitcoin Wallet Springs to Life
It’s not every day a whale from Bitcoin’s 2011 era stirs, but today one ancient entity decided to stretch its fins and move some serious coin.
The action was swiftly spotted by onchain sleuths Whale Alert and btcparser.com. As Whale Alert posted on X:
“A dormant address containing 4,000 BTC (442,256,951 USD) has just been activated after 14.3 years (worth 67,724 USD in 2011)!”
Btcparser flagged the action after the wallet “18eY9o,” created on June 27, 2011, shifted 150.00000223 BTC in block 920434. The legacy P2PKH (Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash) address moved 150 BTC to a fresh P2WSH (Pay-to-Witness-Script-Hash) wallet, while roughly 3,849.99999777 BTC boomeranged back to a P2PKH change address.
The move didn’t go unnoticed—onchain analyst Sani, who runs timechainindex.com, spotlighted the transaction on X for the crypto sleuths keeping score. Sani pointed out that just 150 BTC made the jump to a newer wallet, leaving the rest of the vintage stash right where it’s been collecting digital dust but in a change address.
“These coins were part of coinbase rewards consolidation 14 years ago, these coins were mined as early as April 15, 2009, almost 3 and a half months after [the] network went live,” Sani disclosed. The onchain analyst added:
“So far, only 150 BTC has been sent to a new address, with the change returning to the same address. None of these coins came from Patoshi.”
Sometimes, a tiny transfer like this can tip off analysts to a much bigger treasure chest—moving just a fraction of a stash often shines a light on massive dormant holdings that were otherwise hidden in plain sight. The newly created P2WSH wallet didn’t stay put for long—it made several quick hops across the blockchain, with most of the funds, about 149.13275864 BTC, now resting comfortably in another P2WSH address.
FAQ 💡
- **What happened with the 2011 bitcoin wallet?**A dormant wallet from 2011 moved 4,000 BTC, worth about $442 million, after more than 14 years.
- **Who detected the bitcoin movement?**The transfer was flagged by onchain trackers Whale Alert and btcparser.com.
- **How much bitcoin was sent to a new address?**Only 150 BTC was transferred to a new P2WSH wallet, with the rest sent to a change address.
- **Why does this transaction matter?**Even small movements from old wallets can reveal massive hidden bitcoin holdings.
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