A dormant Bitcoin (BTC) address has been reactivated after more than 11 years of inactivity. The wallet, which contains 100 BTC, came back to life on August 29, according to blockchain monitoring service Whale Alert.
Worth just $14,202 when the address was last used in 2013, the crypto-storage has increased by over 41,000%, and now sits at approximately $6.02 million at the current price of the largest cryptocurrency .
Reactions from the crypto community
There were some interesting reactions from the crypto community following the reveal, with some simply admiring the owner’s patience.
“Imagine holding 100 BTC for over a decade and seeing it go from $14,000 to almost $6 million. This is the true definition of diamond hands,” commented one X user.
Another speculated: “Devastated that it was up to $73,000?” This refers to the fact that Bitcoin reached an all-time high price of $73,798 earlier this year. That price would have given the nest egg a value of more than $7.3 million if the owner had unlocked it then.
A story of reactivations
Interestingly, this is not the first time in recent weeks that a dormant Bitcoin address has been brought back to life by a mysterious owner. On August 7, another wallet came alive, transferring 250 BTC worth almost $14 million.
This address was linked to an unnamed miner, with the original storage value thought to be around $250, since it was last active in May 2010.
On August 17th, another was reactivated containing 18 BTC after gathering webs for 10.3 years. At the time of restoration, the funds at this particular address would have risen to about $1.091 million, a significant jump from its position of $9,204 in 2014.
A March 2024 report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis estimated that there are more than 1.7 million BTC addresses that have remained inactive for more than ten years. That period since they were last active is popularly known as the Satoshi Era, after the mysterious creator of Bitcoin.
Addresses from that era are often associated with early cryptocurrency miners, or those who bought the currency when it was very cheap. Usually, its owners make huge profits as the price of the cryptocurrency has increased tremendously in the intervening period.
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