Bitcoin wallet dormant since 2013 moves 411 BTC worth about $34 million

A 13-year-old Bitcoin stash moves again

A Bitcoin wallet that had been inactive since 2013 moved all of its coins on Sunday. The wallet transferred 411.45 BTC to a new address, according to blockchain data from Arkham Intelligence cited by CoinDesk.

At a price of about $82,600 per coin at the time of the report, the transfer was worth roughly $34 million. A "whale" in crypto means a holder with a very large amount of a coin. A wallet is software or hardware that stores the keys used to control crypto.

Key numbers behind the transfer

• The wallet moved 411.45 BTC in a single transaction on Sunday.
• The coins were worth about $54,000 when the owner first received them.
• The owner got about 411 BTC on Sept. 11, 2013, when Bitcoin traded near $131.
• The transfer was sent at 18:23 UTC, with a fee of 337 satoshis, a tiny fraction of a cent.
• CoinDesk reported the coin price at about $82,600 per BTC in its coverage.

Held through booms and crashes

CoinDesk reported that the owner did not buy, sell, or move a single coin for about 13 years. According to the report, the holder kept the coins through three halvings, the 2017 boom, the 2022 collapse of the exchange FTX, and the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in 2024. An ETF is a fund that trades on a stock exchange, and a spot bitcoin ETF holds actual bitcoin.

The article said the value of the stash rose more than 600 times over that period. It described this as the wallet's first move in 13 years.

Small deposits tried to trick the owner

Even while the owner was inactive, the wallet received dozens of very small deposits, each worth less than a dollar, per CoinDesk. Several came from addresses that Arkham labels as phishing.

The report described this as "address poisoning." In this scam, fraudsters send tiny amounts of crypto, called "dust," to wallets holding large amounts. The goal is to get the owner to copy the scammer's address from their transaction history during a later transfer. CoinDesk reported that the whale did not fall for it.

Wallets waking up across the market

CoinDesk reported that this move is part of a wider pattern this month. One day earlier, two other wallets that had been inactive for more than a decade moved a combined 417 Bitcoin. The week before, a large whale wallet that had been idle since the pre-Covid crash moved its funds, in a transfer CoinDesk valued at $378 million.

The report compared the pattern to 2025, when isolated large holders repeatedly became active again.

Money went to a new private address, not an exchange

CoinDesk reported that the funds have not been sent to an exchange, which is a platform where crypto is bought and sold. The destination wallet has only received this one transfer and has not sent anything out.

The report said that the lack of further movement points to routine wallet maintenance rather than an imminent sale. It noted that the transfer went to a modern SegWit address, which the article described as a possible security upgrade. The article also said that moves of long-dormant coins often spark speculation about a sale, but that most of these coins have been moved to new private wallets rather than sold.

What is confirmed and what is not

Confirmed from the supplied material: the wallet moved 411.45 BTC on Sunday to a new address, blockchain data came from Arkham Intelligence, and the funds did not go to an exchange.

Not confirmed: the identity of the owner, the reason for the move, and whether any of the coins will be sold. The claims that the transfer reflects routine maintenance or a security upgrade are the source's interpretation, not a confirmed fact.

Why the move draws attention

Coins that have sat still since 2013 are closely watched because their owners bought at very low prices. Large moves by such holders can raise questions about whether a big seller is about to enter the market. In this case, CoinDesk reported that the coins simply went to another private wallet, which is why the article described it as housekeeping rather than a sale.

Sources

• CoinDesk