Ancient Bitcoin from 2010 Mining Era Resurfaces as 600 BTC Transfers After 16-Year Silence
A total of 600 BTC from a dozen mining rewards with origins tracing back to March 2010 transferred after lying dormant for over 16 years, while Whale Alert's investigation revealed no connection to Satoshi.
Long-dormant Bitcoin addresses containing coins mined during 2010 suddenly activated after remaining untouched for more than 16 years, sparking fresh debates about potential ties to Bitcoin's enigmatic founder Satoshi Nakamoto.
A dozen separate addresses collectively holding 600 Bitcoin (BTC), currently valued at approximately $48 million, transferred their holdings on Saturday following more than 16 years of complete inactivity, based on onchain data analyzed by Cointelegraph.
According to Whale Alert, a specialized platform dedicated to monitoring blockchain transactions, the 600 BTC originated from mining rewards distributed across 12 distinct Bitcoin blocks, and their investigation determined no links exist connecting these coins to Nakamoto.
None of the blocks can be connected to Satoshi based on our research
Whale Alert spokesperson
This official statement served to cool speculation surrounding the true origins of cryptocurrency mined during the era when Bitcoin's pseudonymous inventor remained actively engaged with the project.
Whale Alert traces all 12 mining block rewards
Through comprehensive analysis, Whale Alert successfully traced each of the 12 mining rewards back to Bitcoin blocks that were mined during March 2010, a period when miners received a 50 BTC block subsidy for each successfully mined block. This subsidy amount has undergone four halving events since that time, with the most recent halving occurring in April 2024, reducing the reward from 6.25 BTC down to the present-day rate of 3.125 BTC per block.
These latest findings build upon Whale Alert's previous examination of seven among these rewards. The platform stated in a Sunday post on X that those particular seven came from blocks which their analysis had already established were not produced by Nakamoto.
Meanwhile, Lookonchain, a platform specializing in onchain analytics, had similarly detected seven miner wallets initially, reporting they transferred 350 BTC following 16.5 years of remaining inactive, noting these wallets acquired the coins via mining activities conducted in March 2010.
Satoshi-era doesn't mean Satoshi's Bitcoin
The transaction activity drew significant attention in part due to the fact that these coins originated during an era when Nakamoto maintained active participation in Bitcoin's development and community.
Nakamoto continued his involvement in both Bitcoin development work and community communications throughout 2010 before slowly stepping back from active participation in the project, with the final known message from Nakamoto recorded in April 2011.
Whale Alert's analysis also highlighted that a single reward transferred several blocks ahead of the majority of the others, indicating the transaction pattern appeared consistent with someone executing a test transaction prior to initiating the bulk of the remaining transfers.