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Bitcoin Whale Transfers $3.6M BTC to Kraken After 15 Years. Is Satoshi Nakamoto Awake?

Arkham Intelligence noted that the wallet, inactive for nearly a decade, saw its value grow from $474,000 to over $80 million, and currently holds 1,169 BTC worth $72.4 million.

Avatar image of Jonathan Agozie Jonathan Agozie•October 5, 2024
kraken

Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence has reported that an inactive Bitcoin whale recently moved around $3.6 million worth of Bitcoin to the crypto exchange Kraken.

According to the analytics firm, this Bitcoin was mined shortly after its launch in February or March 2009.

Long-Dormant Bitcoin Whales Awaken

On September 24, the same whale moved 5 BTC to Kraken, and since that date, they have sent a total of $3.58 million in BTC to the exchange. 

Arkham pointed out that the wallet had been inactive for nearly a decade before the recent transactions. During this period, the value of its holdings grew from $474,000 to over $80 million. Currently, the wallet holds 1,169 BTC, valued at around $72.4 million.

The activity coincides with the recent reawakening of another early cryptocurrency whale, who transferred $16 million worth of BTC after 15 years of inactivity.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

The awakening of these long-dormant whales comes amid renewed speculation about the true identity of Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

The American cable and streaming service HBO is set to premiere the documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” on October 8, which claims to reveal Nakamoto’s identity.

Among the candidates, the late American computer scientist Len Sassaman is a leading possibility. He was associated with the cypherpunk movement and committed suicide on July 3, 2011. A tribute to him was encoded in Block 138,725 of the Bitcoin blockchain, as reported by a blockchain firm.

However, Sassaman’s past criticisms of Bitcoin, shared in X posts from 13 years ago, have sparked debate. Some argue that these posts about Bitcoin’s lack of privacy features and fraud reversal protections suggest he was trying to obscure his identity as the creator.

On October 5, a user named Frank proposed that Sassaman’s criticisms were a deliberate strategy to hide his true role in Bitcoin’s creation. “If you didn’t want anyone to know that you made Bitcoin, you would say some shit like this,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, in an X post, Sassaman’s late wife, Meredith Patterson, asserted that Len was not Nakamoto, prompting Frank to respond sarcastically.

Bitcoin is trading at $62,000, reflecting a 1.5% increase over the last 24 hours, yet it remains 16% below its all-time high of $73,738 reached on March 14.

Jonathan Agozie

Jonathan Agozie is a prompt engineer committed to crafting clear and technically sound content on blockchain, cryptocurrency, and Web3 technologies.