Bitcoin Whale Wakes Up to $27M After Sleeping for 12 Years

An early Bitcoin wallet has woken up to a staggering $27.21 million worth of BTC after sleeping for 12 years. The wallet initially received 400 BTC  in 2012. At the time, the digital asset was trading at a mere $5.45, meaning his holdings were worth just $2,180.

Fast-forward to today, Bitcoin has grown exponentially to $68,500. The original cryptocurrency has witnessed a notable price surge since last week. Just recently, it neared the $70,000 mark, its highest level since July.

Whale Moves Entire Stash 

According to on-chain data shared by Lookonchain, the whale moved their entire Bitcoin stash to another wallet on Oct. 25. This is the first transaction the whale executed since 2012.  Of the $27.21 million worth of BTC, the whale transferred 100 BTC ($6.8 million) to crypto exchange Bitstamp. Moving assets from a wallet into a crypto exchange signals a sell-off.

It appears the whale is capitalizing on the current rebound in the price of BTC. But why did this whale have to wait until now to move their BTC? Why haven’t they sold earlier?

There could be multiple reasons why the wallet hasn’t made any move since 2012. It could be that the whale just recovered their lost private key or just got out of prison. Aside from these circumstances, it could be that the whale intentionally decides to HODL with the hope that the asset’s price will continue to rise.

Wallet Reactivation 

Several other dormant wallets have also been reactivated recently.  Earlier this month, CoinTab reported that a wallet came out of 15 years of dormancy to move $3.6 million worth of Bitcoin to the crypto exchange Kraken. According to the report, the whale has been dormant since 2009. From that time, the whale’s BTC holdings grew from $474,000 to over $80 million.

At press time, BTC was hovering around $68,000. At this price, it is just 8% below its all-time high of $73,738, set in March.