Dormant Bitcoin Whale Wallet Transfers $536M to Binance After 5-Year Hiatus

TLDR

A dormant Bitcoin whale wallet transferred 8,000 BTC (worth $536.5 million) from a Coinbase cold storage wallet to a Binance deposit address after being inactive for over five years.
The wallet originally received the 8,000 BTC in December 2018, when the price of Bitcoin was around $3,750.
The sudden activation of dormant addresses, particularly those transferring funds to exchange deposit addresses, could signal potential selling activity.
Despite the recent transfer, many early Bitcoin wallets remain dormant, with nearly 1.8 million addresses inactive for over a decade, holding approximately $121 billion worth of BTC.
Bitcoin retail demand has dropped to a five-month low, with the average monthly change in demand among retail investors declining to negative 17% over the past 30 days.

A dormant Bitcoin whale wallet has recently awakened after a five-and-a-half-year hiatus, transferring a staggering 8,000 BTC, worth approximately $536.5 million, from a Coinbase cold storage wallet to a Binance deposit address.

The sudden movement of such a large amount of Bitcoin has caught the attention of the crypto community, as it could potentially signal selling activity in the market.

According to data provided by blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, the Bitcoin address “1ABww1…mCSKq” received the entire 8,000 BTC stash at block 847,490 on June 11.

The wallet then proceeded to transfer all the Bitcoin to the Binance deposit address “15u4H…rMsLa” just one block and 11 minutes later, without making any test transactions prior to the two transfers.

The Coinbase cold-storage wallet originally acquired the 8,000 Bitcoin over dozens of transfers on December 5, 2018, mostly in batches of 200 BTC, when the price of Bitcoin was around $3,750. The recent transfer marked a nearly 1,700% increase from its acquisition price, highlighting the significant growth in Bitcoin’s value over the past few years.

The sudden activation of dormant addresses, particularly those transferring funds to exchange deposit addresses, could indicate potential selling activity. However, it remains unclear whether the Bitcoin wallet owner actually cashed out their holdings.

This is not the first time a dormant Bitcoin whale has awakened in recent weeks. In May, two linked Bitcoin wallets transferred a combined 1,000 BTC, worth $61 million at the time, while a Satoshi Nakamoto-era Bitcoin wallet moved 687 BTC, worth nearly $44 million, to two separate addresses.

According to a report by Chainalysis and Fortune, nearly 1.8 million Bitcoin addresses have been inactive for over a decade, holding approximately $121 billion worth of Bitcoin at current prices.

However, many of these wallet owners may have lost or forgotten the seed phrases required to access their Bitcoin, making it uncertain how much of this value can be retrieved.

Bitcoin retail demand has dropped to a five-month low, with the average monthly change in demand among retail investors declining to negative 17% over the past 30 days.

This shift in demand can be attributed to various factors, such as the upcoming inflation-tracking US Consumer Price Index (CPI) and general market sentiment.