Key facts
- Six Bitcoin wallets dormant for over a decade moved a combined 553.59 BTC.
- The total value of the moved Bitcoin was $40.15 million.
- Two wallets are linked to a New York lawsuit seeking to claim abandoned Bitcoin addresses.
- The earliest coins were purchased in mid-2011 for approximately $14 each.
- One wallet moved 40 BTC to Boerse Stuttgart Digital, yielding a gain of over 1.5 million percent.
Six Bitcoin wallets that had been dormant for over a decade have moved a combined $40.15 million in cryptocurrency over a 10-day period in August. The wallets, dormant since 2011, 2012, and 2014, collectively transferred 553.59 BTC.
Two of the six wallets are associated with "Noah Doe #1396 · Salomon Client Dusted" and "Noah Doe #1680" tags, linking them to a New York lawsuit where a plaintiff is seeking to claim tens of thousands of dormant Bitcoin addresses as abandoned property. The lawsuit involves serving notice via small "dust" transactions with on-chain messages.
The oldest coins moved were acquired in mid-2011 for approximately $14 each. One wallet, dormant since June 13, 2011, moved 8.54 BTC worth $538,000, representing a 461,981% gain. Another wallet, dormant since August 10, 2012, moved 212 BTC, now valued at $13.66 million, a potential 557,640% return.
On August 22, 150 BTC from a wallet dormant since December 26, 2014, moved, worth $11.75 million. Additionally, 132.31 BTC from three separate 2011 addresses were moved, with one address alone pocketing $5.51 million, an 807,639% gain on an initial cost of about $10 per coin.
The sixth and most recent wallet moved 40 BTC, dormant since May 28, 2012, and was sent to Boerse Stuttgart Digital. This move yielded the best return of the batch, over 1.5 million percent, based on an estimated $5 cost basis.
While the exact reasons for these movements are unknown, potential catalysts include the Noah Doe lawsuit and general paranoia following a recent exploit of Coldcard hardware wallets, which prompted some holders to move funds. The trend of old Bitcoin wallets becoming active has accelerated in the last six months.