A whale has moved millions to Kraken over the past few days. Their ‘ancient’ holdings were earned a month or two through mining after Bitcoin went live in 2009.
An ‘ancient’ Bitcoin whale has continuously moved their coins to Kraken since late last month. They earned the assets as mining rewards in 2009, only a month after the first-ever blockchain network came into existence. The asset’s first fiat trade occurred only in late 2009 for $0.0009 each. This whale has thus exemplified the concept of hodling, raking in tens of millions of dollars in profits through the 15-year period the assets lay dormant in their wallet.
“A Bitcoin whale holding over $72.5M Bitcoin from 2009 has sent a total of $3.58M BTC to Kraken with their most recent movements yesterday,” blockchain intelligence firm Arkham Intelligence revealed, adding, “This Bitcoin was mined ONE MONTH after Bitcoin’s launch in Feb/March 2009.”
They were last active on September 24 when they moved 5 BTC to Kraken and committed a few transactions between then and the three weeks before September 24. Arkham also reported that while mentioning the wallet’s previous activity was between 2011 and 2014. That indicates the wallet remained inactive for a stretch during which its collective holdings burgeoned from $474,000 to more than $80 million.
Multiple Whales Have Risen From Their Slumbers in 2024
The past year has been sprinkled with instances during which Satoshi-era whales have come to life after years of dormancy to liquidate their holdings. The Satoshi era is a period in Bitcoin’s history when the chain’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, remained active on online message boards. They went silent in late 2010, and their identity remains a mystery.
Nevertheless, in June, a whale’s wallet sprung back to action after over five and a half years of dormancy to move a whopping $536 million out of their wallet. Another moved their funds later that same month, sending $61.65 million worth of BTC, or 1000 BTC, to Coinbase for liquidation. Another moved 50 BTC to Binance that same month.
Whales often come back to life during bullish price movements to capitalize on price rises. However, the whale that moved their funds on October 5 has riled up quite the theories on social media.
Could This Be Satoshi?
With HBO’s documentary about Bitcoin and Satoshi coming out on October 8, many believe the asset movement to be tied to the founder or the founding team. The promotion for the documentary, titled “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” has the producers claiming it will reveal Satoshi’s identity. Many in the community believe Satoshi may be selling off their holdings before a potentially volatile period.
