As the Bitcoin price approaches all-time highs, old wallets that have been dormant for a long time are starting to come alive again.
Awakened After 15 Years: $30 Million Transfer from Old Bitcoin Wallets
Today, five old mining wallets that had been inactive for about 15.3 years moved a total of 250 BTC (about $29.6 million) to new addresses.
According to blockchain analysis platform Arkham, each of these wallets received 50 BTC as a block reward in April 2010, during Bitcoin’s early mining era.
While the original wallet addresses began with “1,” the transferred BTC were transferred to two new wallets in the “bc1q” format, introduced with the SegWit update and offering more advanced transaction features. This move was shared on the X platform by onchain analysts Lookonchain and Spotonchain.
Value and Mining Cost of 50 BTC in 2010
In 2010, the market value of 50 BTC was only about 15 cents. At the time, the price of BTC on BitcoinMarket.com was around $0.003. The block reward at that time was 50 BTC, and this reward remained valid until the first halving in 2012.
In 2010, home computers could only process a few tens of megahashes per second and consumed about 95 watts of energy. The average cost of electricity in the US was 11.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. According to this data, the electricity cost to mine a block ranged from a few cents to less than $1. The real cost was due to hardware and luck.
This month, the revival of long-dormant wallets is notable. Long-term investors are either changing their holdings or realizing their profits. Analysts believe that the market has absorbed these previous supply fluctuations, while demand for Ethereum has also increased.
Meanwhile, thousands of BTC have been transferred from other decade-old wallets in recent weeks. With increasing institutional demand, the price of Bitcoin rose over 27% to $118,480, just 4% off its all-time high of $122,838.
*This is not investment advice.