Last week, a bitcoin (BTC) transaction was observed of coins that had been untouched in a wallet for 10 years. It is unknown who owned the coins and why they became active again after such a long time, but there are fears that they may be sold. In total, it concerns about 510 bitcoins.
We saw the movement of some VERY old coins last week. Coins that had not moved onchain for +10yrs.
Free live chart here: https://t.co/GoCUB7n2Uj pic.twitter.com/ht8ydbydKc
— Philip Swift (@PositiveCrypto) September 27, 2022
Prehistoric Bitcoin Coins
The movement of the 510 coins was recently noticed by Philip Swift, founder of LookIntoBitcoina on chain analysis platform.
“Last week we saw the movement of some very old coins. These coins have not shown any on-chain activity for over ten years.”
The price of bitcoin has reached a level that we last saw at the end of 2020. Many people are now wondering what effect the low price has on the doings of long-term holders of bitcoin. The data on this is contradictory.
The on-chain analytics company glass node reports that the number of bitcoins that have been dormant for at least 5 years is greater than ever. But at the same time, there are very old wallets that become active after a ‘hibernation’ of sometimes more than 10 years.
So it could mean that some of these prehistoric bitcoin holders are interested in selling coins. At the same time, the number of long-term owners of bitcoin is growing.
Bad news for BTC?
However, the awakening of old coins does not always mean bad news. At the end of last month, 5 thousand bitcoins active for the first time since 2013. Large bitcoin transactions are often accompanied by a local top for the bitcoin price. This is because these transactions often have a crypto exchange as their destination with the intention of selling the coins. That is why this large transaction also received a lot of attention at the end of August.
However, the transactions did not have a crypto exchange as their destination. The 5,000 bitcoins were redistributed among several small wallets, according to on-chain analysts.
Currently there are about two and a half million bitcoins that have been inactive for more than 10 years. This is a record and that means that the number of bitcoins inactive since 2012 is greater than ever.