Another Satoshi-Era Bitcoin Whale Is Moving Coins After 15 Years

An unidentified Bitcoin user who mined some of the network’s earliest blocks is now sending their blockchain rewards to centralized crypto exchange Kraken, according to on-chain data.

Analysts at Arkham Intelligence said that the O.G. Bitcoin whale—who now holds $77 million worth of BTC that was mined during the Bitcoin network’s first couple months—has already moved 10 BTC ($630,000) to the cryptocurrency exchange across three separate transactions.

Arkham said the miner “woke up” on-chain just three weeks ago following 10 years of dormancy, watching their holdings grow from $474,000 to $80 million over that time period.

Interestingly, Arkham claims that this is not the same Bitcoin mining O.G. who returned to life last week after mining blocks as far back as January 2009—even earlier than the one who moved coins most recently. The earlier miner’s coins, worth at least $16 million, had been dormant since they first entered circulation over 15 years ago.

While the motivation for either miner’s latest movements remains unknown, transfers to centralized exchanges are generally interpreted as signaling an intention to sell. On-chain market analysts regularly note how long-term Bitcoin holders are more incentivized to sell their coins over time as Bitcoin appreciates and their profit margins grow.

Analysis from last week showed that the blocks mined by the early miner did not align with the pattern of blocks widely suspected to have been mined by Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. It’s still unclear whether that’s also the case with this latest old-school Bitcoin user.

In early August, yet another miner who had accumulated 250 BTC through mining efforts that began in 2010 also moved their coins to five new wallet addresses. Since mining those coins, the user’s holdings increased in value by $13.9 million by the time they were transferred.

Edited by Andrew Hayward