A Bitcoin wallet that had been inactive since 2011 transferred nearly 50 BTC worth about $3.2 million on Thursday, sending the funds to an address that has previously interacted with wallets associated with institutional crypto brokerage FalconX.
The transferred 49.97 BTC remained in the receiving wallet as of Friday, meaning there is no confirmation that the coins were sold or sent to FalconX. However, the address’s previous activity involving FalconX-linked deposits has raised speculation that the funds may be undergoing custody changes, being reorganized, or potentially moved closer to a trading platform.
According to Galaxy Research, the wallet first received the Bitcoin on July 16, 2011, when BTC was trading near $10. The coins had remained untouched for more than a decade, increasing in value to roughly $3.2 million through multiple market cycles, crashes, and major events in the crypto industry.
The transaction was included in Bitcoin block 961331 at 20:14 UTC on Aug. 6. It combined four inputs from the dormant wallet totaling 49.97 BTC with two smaller inputs from other addresses. The transaction then sent 50 BTC to a SegWit address, while a second output received around 0.00116 BTC after transaction fees.
SegWit, or Segregated Witness, is a Bitcoin address format designed to make transactions more efficient by reducing the amount of data stored in each block. Wallet addresses beginning with “bc1” generally use this format.
The receiving wallet was not newly created. Blockchain analytics data from Arkham shows that the address has been active for several years and previously transferred 6.336 BTC and 16.131 BTC to addresses identified as FalconX deposit wallets.
The wallet has also received funds from addresses linked by Arkham to a Nexo hot wallet and Prime Trust custody.
Despite the transfer, the 50 BTC remained in the destination address by Friday morning. There is currently no on-chain evidence showing that the coins have been sent to FalconX, another exchange, or liquidated.
Early Bitcoin wallets often attract significant attention when they become active because many of these holders acquired coins when Bitcoin was worth only a small fraction of its current price.
However, a wallet movement alone does not reveal the owner’s intentions. Transfers from long-dormant addresses can indicate a variety of actions, including moving funds to new security setups, changing custodians, consolidating holdings, or preparing for a possible sale.
The transaction comes shortly after a major Bitcoin cold-wallet security incident, highlighting the risks associated with storing digital assets over long periods.
Coldcard hardware wallet maker Coinkite recently advised users to transfer their funds after discovering a firmware vulnerability dating back to 2021 that could expose private keys generated by affected devices. The company said attackers have stolen as much as $114 million from vulnerable wallets since July 30 across multiple attack waves.
There is no evidence connecting the 2011 wallet movement to the Coldcard exploit, and the wallet existed long before the hardware device was introduced. However, the security incident has encouraged some long-term Bitcoin holders to review older storage methods, potentially contributing to renewed activity from previously dormant wallets.
