“Most addresses in this cluster appear to have been funded by Coinbase with 50 BTC each 15 years ago in 2010,” a spokesperson for onchain analytics platform Bubblemaps told Decrypt, with the "vast majority" of the funds ending up back on the crypto exchange.
The crypto stash dates back to the “Satoshi era,” referring to the cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, when miners received a reward of 50 BTC per block.
While this would have been worth a mere $3.50 back in July 2010, the cash value of this block reward has ballooned to $4.5 million at current market rates.
Overall, the 2,000 BTC is valued at over $182 million at the time of writing, in a powerful illustration of "diamond hands."
Tracking whale movementsMovement in dormant Bitcoin addresses can spark alarm in the crypto market, fueling fears of aggressive sell-offs.
A miner from the Satoshi era moved 2K Bitcoin today, the first time this happens since November 2024, when Bitcoin was at ~$91K.
He added that this was the biggest transfer of coins from this period since November 2024.
SynFutures CEO Rachel Lin told Decrypt that transfers to centralized exchanges historically signal "potential liquidity events, whether profit-taking, collateral deployment or positioning ahead of volatility."
"That said, not every whale move equals an imminent sell-off,” she added. “Early holders are often highly strategic, using exchanges for hedging, OTC settlement, or structured trades rather than outright liquidation."
Lin noted that how the market responds will have a key impact—as it could "raise short-term uncertainty, amplify volatility and shake out overleveraged traders in a market already sensitive to macro signals and ETF flows."
The funds were held across 40 P2PK addresses—otherwise known as Pay-to-Public-Keys.
This was the original method for receiving Bitcoin when the blockchain first launched, with Satoshi Nakamoto using this method to send coins to fellow contributor Hal Finney.
Bitcoin whales reawakenAddresses unexpectedly becoming active after years of dormancy are rare, but not unheard of.
Transfers to centralized exchanges can indicate that coins are about to be sold, but there appeared to be little panic in the crypto markets as of early Monday.
