Bitcoin worth roughly $8.5 million moved late Wednesday after more than 16 years of inactivity, marking the return of coins that were mined when BTC traded for only a few cents.
The transfer involved 100.02 BTC that had been sent to an address on July 30, 2010. The coins stayed untouched until a transaction was confirmed at 18:52 UTC Wednesday, according to CoinDesk’s review of Bitcoin blockchain records. Galaxy Research, the research division of crypto financial services firm Galaxy Digital, first reported the movement on X.
Bitcoin was trading at about 6 cents when the address received the coins, putting their market value at approximately $6 at the time, according to historical data from StatMuse. The figure illustrates how dramatically the holdings have appreciated and does not show what the holder originally paid for the coins or whether they were ever sold.
Bitcoin from wallets that have remained dormant for years often draws attention because such holdings can suddenly return to circulation. Some long-inactive coins may have been considered lost. A successful transaction confirms that someone still has access to spend the bitcoin, but blockchain data cannot identify the owner or reveal whether the coins are being prepared for a sale.
There is precedent for much larger dormant holdings moving into the market. Galaxy said in July 2025 that it had sold more than 80,000 BTC for an early investor as part of an estate-planning strategy. Wednesday’s transfer was significantly smaller, and there is no evidence in the transaction records that the bitcoin was sold.
An Active Address With Dormant Coins
The movement also attracted attention because the address had previously been used to transfer bitcoin between 2011 and 2018.
Bitcoin records each incoming payment separately, allowing a wallet to spend some coins while leaving others untouched. These individual unspent amounts are known as UTXOs. This means an address can show activity even while particular bitcoin holdings remain dormant for years.
The address transferred 200 BTC through two transactions in August 2015, followed by 100 BTC in December 2017 and another 249 BTC in March 2018. The 100.02 BTC received in July 2010, however, remained untouched throughout that period.
“While this address has been somewhat active in the past, these specific coins have not moved since 2010. We track the coins,” Galaxy Research said on X.
CoinDesk traced the 100.02 BTC to two mining rewards generated in July 2010. One contained 50 BTC and the other 50.02 BTC, including fees. At the time, Bitcoin miners received 50 newly created BTC for successfully mining each block.
The coins were mined during Bitcoin’s “Satoshi era,” when the cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was still active. Their age alone, however, does not establish any connection between the coins and Nakamoto.
The Wednesday transaction combined the dormant holdings with six smaller deposits received at later dates. It sent 10 BTC to one address and about 90.02 BTC to another. Both amounts remained unspent when CoinDesk reviewed the addresses Thursday morning.
