Bitcoin Whale moves 2,000 BTC dormant for 14 years

An unknown individual or entity recently merged 2,000 BTC buried in 2010 into one wallet.

Announced by developer Mononautical on X, the consolidation took place on March 26 and involved the transfer of 40 mining rewards, each consisting of 50 BTC, to one wallet.

Bitcoin mining costs 14 years

Reflecting on the situation, mononautical said, “Imagine going from a few hundred dollars to a $140 million rocket over 14 years. Especially during mining, the reward reached 600 dollars.

A person has accumulated 2000 BTC from many coinbase rewards since 2010.

Imagine 14 years of hoarding as it rocketed from a few hundred dollars to $140 million 😳

— mononaut (tx/acc) (@mononautical) March 26, 2024

Responding to the revelation, another X user @Psifour raised concerns about the possibility of corrupted key generation, citing a known pool or random origin for rewards.

But Mononotical said the miner remained anonymous and suggested the transfer was more of a strategic move than a security breach. “The keys may have been tampered with, but this one seems to have gone straight to the OTC desk,” mononautical added, referring to previous sweeps of similar old mining wallets.

This news follows another significant Bitcoin movement over the weekend. The fifth richest bitcoin address that has been dormant since 2019 has suddenly sprung to life. According to blockchain analytics firm Arkham, in 2019, this address was covered by 94,500 BTC worth $6.05 billion. Bitcoin remained untouched until recently when it was split and transferred to new addresses.

Bitcoin is facing a sell-side liquidity crisis.

Adding to the rhetoric, CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Joo suggested that the consolidation indicates a “revival of old bitcoin's sell-side financial crisis.” Ju also pointed out that the trading strategy refers to over-the-counter (OTC) cash sales.

Meanwhile, CryptoQuant's latest “Weekly Crypto Report” has revealed an impending “sell-side financial crisis.” The report attributes the crisis to an increase in demand for Bitcoin, fueled primarily by the introduction of bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US.

According to the report, Bitcoin's liquid inventory has reached its lowest level in terms of demand in months, with current supply sufficient to cover twelve months of demand growth.

Furthermore, considering that Bitcoin is strictly available on US exchanges, the supply can only meet half of the demand, which reduces to six months of demand if Bitcoin originating outside the US is not included. This exclusion is based on the premise that US spot Bitcoin ETFs only source Bitcoin from US entities.