Million-dollar Bitcoin wallets suddenly 'wake up' in a week

Wallets containing hundreds of Bitcoins, inactive for 5 years or more, suddenly had transaction activity in a week.

According to data from blockchain security tool Blockchair, about 10 wallets containing over 100 Bitcoins (from $6 million) have been traded in the past few days. The most notable wallet, containing over 1,000 Bitcoins ($61.4 million), has moved money for the first time in six years. The initial Bitcoins were purchased on August 25, 2018. The transaction was confirmed on June 27, sent to Coinbase as a “send all” and has a transaction security rating of 55/100.

A coin with the Bitcoin symbol placed on the keyboard. Photo: Khuong Nha

A day later, a wallet created more than eight years ago, on September 13, 2016, transferred 148.21 Bitcoins (over $9.1 million) to another wallet. However, the transaction security level on this wallet was confirmed to be 0/100, the lowest on the blockchain.

On the same day, June 28, a wallet created on April 1, 2013 also transferred 126.65 Bitcoins ($7.8 million) with a security level of 35/100. During the 11-year period, the wallet had almost no transactions.

Cryptocurrency tracker BtcParser also reported several long-standing Bitcoin wallets becoming active again this week, including one that moved about $3 million worth of Bitcoin on June 26. The wallet had been inactive since July 14, 2010. Another address moved 215 Bitcoin ($13.2 million) since it was last active on March 31, 2013.

According to Bitcoin.com ’s prediction , wallets that put money on exchanges, such as the one that transferred 1,000 Bitcoins, are most likely to be sold. Currently priced at over $61,000 per coin, the owners of these wallets appear to have made thousands of times more money than when they first bought them.

However, for those who transfer money to other wallets, it is likely to increase security. These people still tend to keep the Bitcoin they own. Meanwhile, old wallet technologies have many vulnerabilities, are vulnerable to hacker attacks, making the Bitcoin in the wallet also at high risk of being stolen.

According to Chainalysis and Fortune , there are currently 1.75 million Bitcoin wallet addresses that have been inactive for more than a decade. These wallets are estimated to contain about 1,798,681 Bitcoins, worth $120 billion, accounting for 8.5% of the total Bitcoin supply on the network.

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