A mysterious bitcoin whale has made a move, transferring 464 bitcoins worth $13 million for the first time in nine years. The whale had acquired 1,129 bitcoins in 2012 and 2013, and following the recent transfer, has sent a total of 464 BTC. The move comes after another whale transferred 2,071.5 bitcoins worth $60 million on April 19, marking the first time the coins had moved in over nine years. This large stash of coins is associated with the Mt Gox saga and a strange bitcoin address that was linked to two significantly large BTC transfers last year.
Bitcoin’s price has fallen below the $29K zone and is struggling to hold above the $28K region. On April 21, the Twitter account @lookonchain tweeted about the recent transfer, stating that the whale had received 1,129 bitcoin in October 2012 and May 2013 when prices were $12 and $195, respectively. In response to the tweet, one individual speculated that it was probably an OG Silk Road vendor just released. Following the transfer of 278.89 BTC by the aforementioned address and the subsequent tweet by the social media account, the address “12At4” sent another 184.23 BTC.
Bitcoin blockchain parsers have been detecting old whales moving dormant coins for years, but statistics show that older bitcoins born in 2009, 2010, and 2011 are becoming rare spends. According to further research, a significant number of older Bitcoin transactions have come from 2016 and 2017 in the past few months. The last known transactions from 2009 occurred just over a year ago on April 7 and 8, 2022, when around five Bitcoin block rewards mined in 2009 were spent in a series of transfers. Prior to that, the last time a 2009 block reward was spent was on March 20, 2020, which was nine days after the infamous “Black Thursday” event.
At the time of writing, the “12At4” bitcoin address still holds 665.65 BTC, and the owner’s corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) address still holds approximately 1,128.77 BCH. The recent moves by old bitcoin whales have sparked speculation about the future of the cryptocurrency market. Some analysts believe that these moves could indicate a shift in investor sentiment towards Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Others argue that these moves are simply a reflection of the maturation of the market and the increasing number of institutional investors entering the space.
Regardless of the reason behind these moves, it is clear that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are here to stay. As the market continues to mature and more investors enter the space, we can expect to see continued volatility and uncertainty. However, with the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies by mainstream institutions and the growing interest from retail investors, the future of the cryptocurrency market looks bright.
