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Five early Bitcoin Miner Wallets awakens after 15 years
Satoshi Era Bitcoin Miner Wallets awakens after 15 years and moves 15.9 million in BTC
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Satoshi Era Bitcoin Miner Wallets awakens after 15 years and moves 15.9 million in BTC

2024-09-21 by Ndaman Olayinka 6 minutes read
Satoshi Era Bitcoin Miner Wallets awakens after 15 years and moves 15.9 million in BTC

Recently, it has been noticed that early Bitcoin miners who were rewarded with coins shortly after the blockchain was launched by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the technology, have been moving their Bitcoin.

Five miner wallets that were awarded 50 Bitcoin (BTC) a piece as block rewards in 2009 began transferring their money on September 20. According to data from blockchain, three wallets received block rewards on January 31, 2009, while one wallet received the mining reward on January 29, 2009. On February 2, 2009, the last wallet was rewarded with a block. 

Lookonchain confirms five dormant Bitcoin miners have reappeared after 15 years

reappeared after 15 years

A post on X by the analytics account lookonchain revealed that within an hour, five Bitcoin wallets that had been dormant had awoken, with each wallet holding 50 BTC, or $3.18 million.

These miners received 50 BTC for producing a Bitcoin block in 2009, the year that the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the world's first cryptocurrency system. The Bitcoin network had reached 210,000 blocks by November 2012, the month of the halving. During the Bitcoin halving in 2012, it was reduced to 25 BTC.

A total of 250 Bitcoin, or approximately $16 million, were transferred between all five of these wallets. 

Going back to history during the arrival of Bitcoin

The wallets most likely belonged to those who were present when the Bitcoin blockchain was first launched, as BTC was mined only a few weeks after it was first introduced. 

A mysterious person going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto released a paper on finance and cryptography towards the end of 2008. In the paper, Bitcoin was referred to as "a peer-to-peer electronic cash system" and a method of transferring money between two people without the need for intermediaries like banks or other third parties or without having to trust each other. 

Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first bitcoin block on January 3, 2009, and received a reward of 50 bitcoins for doing so. On January 12, 2009, Hal Finney became the first person to receive Bitcoin when he received 10 bitcoins from Satoshi Nakamoto in the world's first bitcoin transaction. 

Taking a look at history, the Bitcoin blockchain was launched in 2009. When Nakamoto mined the genesis block on January 3, 2009, a message referencing a headline from the The Times newspaper in the UK was embedded. The creator of Bitcoin outlined the fundamentals of the protocol on January 9, 2009, including how to mine and send coins.

Early Miner Bitcoin jumps from $0 to $15.9 million

The 250 BTC that was initially mined and stored in the wallets had very little value. However, in 2024, the tokens are estimated to be worth $15.9 million, with a bitcoin trade price of approximately $63,000 per token, as per CoinMarketCap. 

Cryptocurrency community speculates about the identity of the early Bitcoin miner

Members of the community speculated as to who was moving the Bitcoins as the movements were flagged. Some users speculate that Satoshi Nakamoto or American software developer Hal Finney could be the owners of the wallets in the current situation, as both performed the first-ever Bitcoin transaction.

Meanwhile, after seeing the Bitcoin, one X user stated that someone might have "found their old hard drive" and won the lottery, while another user thought it might be someone who had gone down into a "coma" and suddenly woke up to find themselves to be a multimillionaire.

How many dormant wallets are left? 

1.75 million Bitcoin wallets have reportedly been inactive for more than ten years, according to a Fortune report. Many of these wallets contain sizeable quantities of Bitcoin that were bought at double-digit prices and are currently valued in the millions. 

Approximately 1,798,681 Bitcoin, currently valued at over $120 billion, are stored in these dormant wallets. A number of wallets from the Satoshi era have been activated recently, sending Bitcoin to new addresses. After almost a decade of holding, some transferred the funds to crypto exchanges, indicating that the owners might be looking to profit. 

It was reported earlier this year that on May 12, after 10.7 years, a long-time BTC holder with two dormant BTC wallets moved 1,000 BTC. In another report on July 4, it was stated that a Bitcoin wallet address holding 119 BTC, or roughly $6.8 million, unexpectedly reactivated after being dormant for more than 12 years. 

The price of bitcoin rises to $63,000. 

The world's most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has seen significant growth this week, rising from $57,600 to $64,000, a gain of more than 11% overall.

As of the time of writing, there has been a 0.23% increase in price in the last 24 hours, and BTC is currently trading at $63,141.75, according to data from CoinmarketCap. 

The Fed Reserve's decision to cut the annual interest rate by 50 basis points set off this remarkable growth. The world's most powerful central bank has adopted a more assertive stance in the last four years, and this is the first interest rate cut it has spearheaded.

Disclaimer: This information should not be considered financial advice by any means. Please do your own research before making any investment decisions. The views in the articles are personal opinions only. Whale Insider is not responsible for any financial losses incurred.