After more than 11 years of inactivity, an inactive Bitcoin address with $31 million in BTC suddenly came to life recently. On July 22, 2023, the address transferred its entire balance to the new address.
Early BTC Address Resurrected
Bitcoin has been around since 2009, so there are dormant addresses that have been inactive for years with a lot of BTC. Some of the early adopters of this cryptocurrency were able to buy very cheaply but the private keys of most of these addresses were lost, locking them forever. From time to time, however, some of these addresses suddenly come to life again as the owner recovers the funding donkeys.
The address here is one of the earliest Bitcoin addresses. According to on-chain data, it received the first transaction of 1,037 BTC in November 2012. At that time, the price of each BTC was traded at only $12.41. It then received regular small deposits of BTC over the years. With Bitcoin’s current price at $29,828, this sets the total price at just over $31 million.
💤 💤 💤 💤 A dormant address with 1,037 #BTC (31,080,234 USD) just activated after 11.3 years!https://t.co/6cW9vnTOhD
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 22, 2023
There are several possibilities for what might have prompted the owner to suddenly transfer these funds after all this time, from regaining control of the private keys to cashing out and getting a profit. Whatever the reason, the sudden reawakening of dormant Bitcoin addresses has the potential to cause a stir and spark interest in the Bitcoin community.
BTC price remains below $30,000 | Source: BTCUSD on Tradingview.com
Implications For Bitcoin Price
If a large amount of BTC suddenly moves, it can cause temporary price fluctuations. The immediate sale of assets can lead to a drop in the market price of Bitcoin. However, these effects are usually short-lived. In the long run, the increase in circulating supply is unlikely to affect the price of Bitcoin due to the rapid rate of adoption.
Dormant BTC addresses have also appeared to be in turmoil this year. Back in May, a similar address containing 1,000 BTC that had been dormant for over 11 years transferred 400 BTC to a new wallet. In February, a BTC address that had been dormant for 11 years was revived to transfer $9.6 million worth of BTC.
These examples show that even if an address has been inactive for a long time, there is always a possibility that the funds will move again. However, many of these addresses seem to be lost forever. ACCORDING to IntoTheBlock, about 29% of the total Bitcoin circulating supply is now believed to be gone forever after remaining stagnant for over five years.S
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com
