A bitcoin (BTC) quasi-whale—so named because it owns nearly 1,000 BTC—has caught the market's attention today by making a move after lying dormant for an entire decade. Precisely, transferred 687.33 BTC, equivalent at the time of the transaction to USD 43.3 million at a price per coin of USD 63,900. The move was made by the address 15WZNLACuvcDrrBL2btDErJggnaMQtHh5G. The «whale» maintained this possession since January 2014, when it represented a total value of USD 630,400 with BTC then trading at just USD 900. This can be seen through the following explorer data Lookonchain.
Whale movements. Source: Lookonchain. In this sense, the transaction was carried out while these currencies recorded an appreciation of 7,000%. This is thanks to the long-term investment strategy, an activity called “hodl” in the market, amid the growing demand that drove the price, as the following graph shows.
Bitcoin price in the last decade. Source: TradingView.
It is unknown what motivated the movement of these old BTC
Julio Moreno, head of research at the on-chain explorer CryptoQuant, distinguished that these coins are directly linked to one of the pioneering BTC miners. He clarified that they were issued in 2011, two years after the launch of Bitcoin.
The identity of the sender and receiver of the transaction are unknown, so it is not known if it is a sale or a transfer to another wallet of the same whale. For now at least, the market has not seen selling pressure that would push the price back after this movement. In fact, as seen below, the bitcoin price rose to $65,000 after the transaction and then returned to $63,000.
In black you can see the price of bitcoin and in orange the movements of bitcoins stored for more than 10 years. Source: CryptoQuant The movement of these old currencies occurred, as reported by BitcoinDynamic, while the price of bitcoin has been in a period of consolidation for two months after reaching a new all-time high at USD 73,700.