In a move that stunned crypto watchers, eight dormant Bitcoin wallets from the early Satoshi era were suddenly activated over the last 24 hours — with a staggering 80,009 BTC worth $8.69 billion moved into new wallets.
This marks the largest reawakening of early Bitcoin wallets in recorded history.
Wallets Date Back to 2011 — Bitcoin Was Just Pennies
According to multiple reports and blockchain analysis platforms like Arkham Intelligence, the wallets were first loaded between April 2 and May 4, 2011, when Bitcoin was trading between $0.78 and $3.37.
At that time, 80,009 BTC would’ve cost less than $250,000 total.
Today, that same amount is worth over $8.6 billion, with each wallet holding over $1.1 billion in BTC — a gain of roughly 13.9 million percent.
All Eight Wallets Believed to Belong to One Entity
Blockchain analysis suggests that the same person or group controls all eight wallets, given the identical transaction patterns and the simultaneous activity. No one has publicly claimed ownership.
All funds were moved to new wallets using modern Bitcoin address formatting (bc1q), suggesting this may have been a consolidation or security upgrade rather than a sale.
“There are no indications that this whale is selling Bitcoin,” Arkham wrote in a follow-up post.
Transfer Sparks Speculation — Is Satoshi Waking Up?
Crypto communities across social media immediately began speculating whether this was:
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A legendary early adopter cashing out
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A technical migration to upgraded security wallets
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Or even Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s anonymous creator, making a move
“A single entity moved $8.6 BILLION of BTC from 8 addresses in the past day,” Arkham reported.
“Currently, the Bitcoin is sitting in 8 new addresses and has not been spent.”
