A batch of 100.02 Bitcoin, originally mined in July 2010 during Bitcoin’s early years, has moved for the first time in 16 years. The transaction was confirmed on October 7, splitting the funds into two new addresses, and instantly became a topic of interest in the cryptocurrency community.
Historic transfer after long dormancy
At approximately $83,000 per coin, the total value of the moved Bitcoin stood at $8.3 million. When the coins were originally mined in 2010, Bitcoin’s all-time high for that year placed their total worth at about $29. The move marks one of the latest significant transfers of Satoshi-era coins, a term used for Bitcoin mined during the period when the network’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was active.
The recent transaction was confirmed in block 970,379 at 18:52 UTC. It split the coins into two groups: 10 BTC and 90.02 BTC, each directed to separate, modern-format bc1q addresses. The transfer incurred a fee of 1,467 satoshis, which amounts to roughly $1.22 for the entire $8.3 million moved.
There are no onchain indicators disclosing the identity of the owner, and experts stress that movement between addresses does not necessarily indicate a sale. Both new addresses remained untouched as of Thursday, and the coins have not been spent elsewhere on chain.
Details of the early mining activity
These coins were originally generated in block 70,522 and block 70,748, both in late July 2010, with 50.02 BTC and 50 BTC mined only two days apart. The two batches were merged into a single transaction on July 30, 2010, and have since resided in the same address until this recent movement.
Bitcoin’s early years were marked by novelty and experimentation. In 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz famously traded 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, worth roughly $41 at the time. Since then, the Bitcoin mining reward has halved on four occasions, with the latest reduction setting the reward at 3.125 BTC in April 2024. This means each new block now pays just a fraction of what early miners received in 2010.
Patterns of dormant wallet activity
On-chain records show that while this address performed other transactions—sending out 100 BTC in 2015, another 100 BTC in December 2017, and 249 BTC in March 2018—the specific 100.02 BTC moved this week had remained idle since 2010. Blockchain analytics firm Galaxy confirmed that they track individual coins rather than addresses, clarifying that these particular coins had not changed hands in 16 years.
Galaxy states: “We maintain a complete ledger of every single UTXO and all their historical movements (about 1.7 terabytes). This address has been somewhat active in the past, but these specific coins have not moved since 2010. We track the coins.”
Satoshi-era coins have resurfaced in multiple episodes recently. In February 2025, a 50 BTC batch mined at a fraction of a dollar per coin moved after 15 years, with its value climbing to $5 million at the time. The owner transferred the full amount without a smaller “test” transaction, a step many users traditionally take for security.
August saw another dormant wallet move 49.97 BTC, first received in July 2011 when Bitcoin traded below $15. The transaction ultimately landed in a wallet identified by Arkham, a blockchain analytics company, as linked to FalconX, a prime brokerage for trading firms. However, such identification alone does not confirm that the assets were sold.
Between August 16 and 26, six wallets that had held their coins since 2011, 2012, or 2014 transferred a total of 553.59 BTC, valued at $40 million. Two of these transactions involved addresses tagged in connection with an ongoing New York lawsuit seeking to deem 39,069 dormant addresses as abandoned property.
By Thursday, the 10 BTC and 90.02 BTC from this week’s transfer remained in their new locations, with no further activity detected. For now, observers note that the owner—often referred to as a “whale”—has not sold these long-idle coins.
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