On Oct. 24, at block height 867,127, a bitcoin wallet from 2011 suddenly moved 150 bitcoins, marking the first transaction in over 13 years. This is the fifth occurrence this month of bitcoins from 2011 being spent, and it’s extremely likely that most of these transactions are all connected to the same individual or entity.
Vintage 2011 Bitcoin Wallet Moves $10M, Linked to All of October’s 2011 Spends
This article was published more than a year ago. Some information may no longer be current.
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Rare Bitcoin Wallets From 2011, Tied to Same Owner, Transfer $28M This Month
Today, a dormant bitcoin address, created on June 26, 2011, came to life, moving 150 BTC, valued at just over $10 million. Wallets from 2009, 2010, and 2011 are rare gems, yet five vintage 2011 wallets moved a combined total of 421 BTC this October, worth $28.16 million at current bitcoin exchange rates. The 150 BTC sent on Thursday came from a legacy Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) wallet and was transferred to a Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) address, with the change going to a fresh P2PKH wallet.
Back on June 26, 2011, bitcoin traded at $17.51 per coin, meaning the 150 BTC was only worth $2,626.50 on that day. Fast forward to today, and their value has skyrocketed by 381,917% to reach $10 million. The transaction didn’t prioritize privacy, as Blockchair’s privacy tool rated it a low zero out of 100. The inputs and outputs were easy to match, and the transfer of a round number further highlighted the lack of obfuscation.
Of the 150 BTC, 100 bitcoins were directed to the P2SH address “31qJA.” A wallet owned by a centralized crypto exchange. This transaction mirrored the same pattern seen in earlier 2011 transfers reported by Bitcoin.com News this month (1, 2). Interestingly, all the coins involved were originally acquired in June 2011. For example, just four days prior, at block height 866,541, a transfer of 20 BTC was discovered moving coins from a wallet created on June 17, 2011.
That transaction sent 19.99997387 BTC to the P2SH address “3Eddv.” Both “31qJA” and “31qJA” are addresses associated with the crypto exchange Bitstamp. Every one of these 2011 transactions in October saw BTC funneled to Bitstamp, strongly suggesting they share the same owner. The user kicked off the month’s activity by transferring 1 BTC out of a total of 121 stored in a 2011 wallet to Bitstamp on Oct. 9. This initial 1 BTC transaction was likely a test run, ensuring the receiving address was correct by sending a small amount before moving larger sums.
