16-Year-Old Bitcoin Dormancy Breaks as 600 BTC Moves Amid Nakamoto Speculation
Bitcoin's oldest era has stirred after 16 years of inactivity. A cluster of 12 dormant Bitcoin addresses collectively moved 600 BTC on Saturday, valued at approximately $48 million. Whale Alert, a blockchain transaction tracking platform, found that the coins originated from mining rewards earned during March 2010.
The 50 BTC block subsidy was halved multiple times since then, with the most recent reduction in April 2024. While the timing has fueled speculation about ties to Satoshi Nakamoto, Whale Alert claims no evidence links the transactions to the creator of Bitcoin. The platform did find that one of the rewards moved several blocks before the others, suggesting a test transaction.
Whale Alert's analysis builds on its earlier work, which examined seven of the rewards and determined they were not mined by Nakamoto. Now, with 12 blocks traced back to March 2010, the focus shifts from attribution claims to understanding the economic intent behind the transfers.