KEY POINTS
- The whale account had 500 Bitcoins 10.7 years ago, as per Whale Alert
- The wallet's total holdings were worth only around $63,500 a decade ago
- The whale wallet's Bitcoins are now worth over $30 million
One more Bitcoin whale has been activated after more than a decade of dormancy, triggering theories among cryptocurrency users about why a dormant wallet suddenly moved during a time when BTC prices are on the low side.
Whale Alert, which monitors the activity of some of the crypto space's largest digital asset holders, broke the news Sunday. "A dormant address containing 500 BTC (30,494,084 USD) has just been activated after 10.7 years," the whale tracker wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
When the digital wallet was first opened, 500 Bitcoins were worth only some $63,500, Whale Alert noted, further highlighting just how significant Saturday's movement was. On-chain data showed that the wallet transferred the BTC holdings to another wallet early Sunday.
A report by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis and Fortune revealed that dormant Bitcoin wallets have been "waking up" more frequently in recent weeks, raising questions on just how much more "missing" BTC could gradually return to the market after years of silence.
Cryptocurrency users have since been sharing their theories on how the latest move by a BTC whale – digital asset holders who retain their holdings for a long time regardless of market sentiment – could affect the Bitcoin space.
One user suggested that the whale may be "dumping before [the] real bull [market]" kicks off, given how the world's first decentralized crypto is currently in a stagnant phase after the halving in April.
Another user said the latest whale activity just shows how volatile crypto can be. One user said the development could indicate that the Bitcoin community may soon see "an impulsive move up or down."
Other users suggested that the wallet owner may be planning retirement, while one said the whale may be "getting too old to hodl," a term used in the crypto space to refer to a Bitcoin owner who holds on for dear life to his or her Bitcoins regardless of how the market environment is doing.
This is not the first dormant whale movement that caught the interest of crypto users. Just last week, a digital wallet that held more than 600 BTC and didn't have any transactions for more than 10 years was reactivated. The movement took place on the day Bitcoin surged to $64,000 after plummeting to $58,000 a few days earlier.
Crypto whales have long been observed by other digital asset holders and the crypto community due to their ability to affect market sentiment and at times, even asset prices.
