According to data recorded by Whale Alert, a service specializing in tracking and reporting the largest market movements on the blockchain, a Bitcoin (BTC) wallet that is over 9 years old was unexpectedly reactivated on July 12, 2021. Inside the wallet, there are 791 BTC, valued at approximately 26.1 million USD.
It is known that the last transaction of this Bitcoin wallet was made on June 16, 2021, with 50 BTC being transferred into the wallet. Prior to that, about 740 BTC was also transferred into the wallet on June 1, 2012 – a time when the cryptocurrency market was still in its infancy and not widely recognized. At that time, BTC was valued at around 10 USD/BTC. Notably, since then, this Bitcoin wallet has remained silent, with no withdrawals or deposits made. Even when Bitcoin reached its all-time high in April 2021, hundreds of Bitcoins remained dormant in the wallet.
It wasn’t until mid-July 2021 – when the cryptocurrency market was still reeling and unable to recover, that the mysterious Bitcoin wallet address suddenly became active again. According to Whale Alert, 640 BTC from this wallet, valued at over 21 million USD, were withdrawn from the account on July 12. It is still unclear whether they were sold on an exchange or transferred to a more secure cold wallet.
Currently, the identity of the owner of this Bitcoin wallet is also raising many speculations within the cryptocurrency community. Some cryptocurrency experts believe that this could be a forgotten Bitcoin wallet owned by one of the early Bitcoin buyers and holders. For some reason, this individual was unable to access the wallet storing hundreds of Bitcoins, which were purchased at a ‘bargain’ price back in 2012. Only recently did the owner of this digital wallet possibly remember or discover the access password, thus unlocking the extremely valuable Bitcoins.
After more than 9 years, the value of BTC is currently trading at around 32,600 USD (according to data from Binance as of 21:00 on June 13, 2021). With a ‘terrifying’ increase over 9 years, 791 BTC, which was valued at around 7910 USD in June 2012, is now estimated at about 26.1 million USD. This value is still significantly lower than the historical high of 64,800 USD that Bitcoin reached in April.
Remember just over a month ago, a wallet address containing 900 BTC, which was established in 2012, also unexpectedly ‘came back to life’ after 9 years of ‘sleeping’ without making any transactions. Accordingly, the aforementioned Bitcoin wallet, valued in the tens of millions of USD, is believed to belong to a first-generation cryptocurrency investor. It is also speculated that this person had forgotten the access password for many years before suddenly finding the ‘key to the treasure’ after 9 long years.
Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to become a USD millionaire by rediscovering the BTC they purchased many years ago. According to cryptocurrency data company Chainalysis, of the approximately 18.5 million Bitcoins currently in existence, about 20% are lost or stuck in wallets that cannot be opened for various reasons, including forgotten passwords.