On May 12, as bitcoin hovered slightly above the $61,000 mark, two dormant bitcoin wallets, inactive for over ten years and eight months, executed transactions totaling 1,000 bitcoins valued at approximately $61.1 million. It appears that both wallets, created on the same day, were owned by the same individual.
Bitcoin Whale From 2013 Resurfaces, Moves Over 1,000 BTC Worth $61 Million
This article was published more than a year ago. Some information may no longer be current.
WRITTEN BY
SHARE
Dormant for a Decade: Bitcoin Wallets Transfer Massive Sum
After more than a decade of inactivity, a bitcoin whale from 2013 re-emerged. On Sunday, May 12, at block height 843,131, the wallet identified as “16vRq” moved 500 BTC. The bitcoin transitioned from an original Pay to Public Key Hash (P2PKH) address to a modern Pay to Witness Public Key Hash (P2WPKH) wallet. At the time of this report, about $30 million or 499.99 BTC still resides in the recipient’s wallet.
The wallet 16vRq was established on Sept. 12, 2013, and the May 12, 2024 transaction achieved a moderate privacy rating of about 55. The funds were transferred using the “send everything” feature, likely to either settle a payment or relocate the funds to a new wallet type (1 input). Meanwhile, the corresponding 500 bitcoin cash ( BCH) associated with the wallet remains unspent.
Approximately two blocks later, at block height 843,133, a second transaction was executed from another P2PKH wallet known as “1DUJu,” also established on Sept. 12, 2013. This wallet sent 500 BTC, roughly valued at $30 million, to another P2WPKH address. This transaction mirrors the first, with 499.99 BTC still in the wallet and a similar privacy score of 60.
The monitoring service btcparser.com detected these transfers, suggesting that both were likely conducted by the same entity. Interestingly, the service had earlier noted a transaction from a wallet established on May 3, 2013, where 108 BTC were moved at block height 843,017. Just before this, another transaction involved a single bitcoin from a wallet set up on July 3, 2013, at block 842,989. However, these earlier transactions took place well before the 1,000 BTC were moved on May 11, 2024.
The entity responsible for moving the 108 BTC might be the same as the one behind the subsequent 1,000 BTC transaction. This transfer also originated from a legacy P2PKH wallet and ended up in a P2WPKH wallet, with the 108 BTC still present and the related BCH untouched. Like the dual 500 BTC transactions, this was also a sweep and received a lower privacy score of 45 for the same reasons mentioned above. In total 1,109 BTC from 2013 addresses were sent between blocks 842,989 and 843,131.
What do you think about the whale from 2013 suddenly moving more than 1,000 bitcoins on Sunday? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
