Whale season has started. Last week, a Bitcoin (BTC) whale wallet from 2010 was reactivated. And whoever was smart enough to have a large chunk of Bitcoin in 2010 is now a very rich human.
The wallet address in question is 17QBWJCGV4QbQhLbhcS7d9yB2S7DPLf4N9. And the first transaction is dated October 28, 2010.
Before yesterday’s transaction, this address had never sent BTC. In fact, until last June, it was only receiving cryptocurrency.
The only transaction worth noting is the first one, when it received 489.09 BTC.
Yesterday, just over 489 BTC was sent from this address, with a total value of around $20 million.
The fact that all the BTC at the address has been sent to a new address that has never received any Bitcoin before suggests that it might also be purely strategic move. For example, transferring funds to a cold wallet. In October 2010, cold wallets did not exist yet.
Whale is Active
It’s worth noting that the address from which 489.09 BTC was sent in October 2010 appears to be part of a fairly active wallet from which several transactions were initiated this month from different addresses.
So it can be safely assumed that in 2010 the person was a very active whale, but then ceased to be one for many years. At that time, Bitcoin was about to experience its first big bull market.
From $100 to $20 million – HODL pays off
At the end of October 2010, the market price of BTC was around $0.20. In early November, however, it had almost doubled.
A few months later, in February 2011, the price increased to $1.00. In June, it even recorded an all-time-high above $32.
So the 489.09 BTC received at the end of October was worth less than $100 back then. A few months later, its value soared to over $15,000.
After that, the price never dropped below $2. The minimum value of that 489.09 BTC never fell below $1000 again. This would justify their inactivity. $100 turned into $1000 first, and then into almost $20m.
It’s nice work if you can get it.
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