Sleeping Bitcoin Whale Wakes Up With $6.9m Transfer  

Dormant Bitcoin addresses are awaking even as the cryptocurrency market slid down during a historically green month for the top digital asset.

After 12 years of inactivity, a Bitcoin (BTC) address transferred 119 tokens worth $6.9 million at current prices, according to Whale Alert. According to on-chain data from mempool.space, the dormant user last transferred BTC back in February 2012. At the time, the wallet’s value was worth around $600, and the address moved 2.98 BTC worth $15.

The latest transactions were split into two transactions, the first moving 76 BTC and the second 43 BTC. 

Whales refer to large holders of an asset. Such entities hold tens of millions to billions in cryptocurrency and may affect market prices or sentiment as observers speculate on why they are suddenly active. Since the whale is anonymous, the reason behind today’s transactions is unclear. Still, both BTC transfers were designated to a single new wallet, suggesting that the same user is consolidating holdings in a fresh address.

Dormant Bitcoin addresses have moved assets around several times this year. On May 6, a BTC whale sent $43 million in cryptocurrency to another wallet for the first time in 10 years. Another whale sent 1,000 BTC valued at around $60 million two months ago a week later.

Amid a BTC market decline and awakened wallets, one whale is also liquidating holdings en masse, albeit at a loss. LookOnChain noted that the whale deposited 3,500 BTC or $206 million in Bitcoin on Binance within five hours. 

Whales usually move tokens to centralized exchanges to sell in the open market. Per the data provider, this whale sold its Bitcoin at a $20 million loss and has been depositing on exchanges for weeks now. 

Meanwhile, Bitcoin shed over 5% of its market value and fell below $57,500 for the first time since April, per CoinGecko. The downturn coincided with a flip in the crypto “fear & greed” index from greed last month to fear at press time.